Sports 02-01-2011

Fitzpatrick wins 1000 at State Coaches Meet, sets new RHS mark

Revere High track star Mike Fitzpatrick added another laurel to his growing wreath of accomplishments, winning the 1000 meter run at Saturday’s Massachusetts State Coaches Association Invitational Track Meet held at the Reggie Lewis Center.

Fitzpatrick not only topped the field of 76 competitors in the 1000 meter run, which featured top runners from across the state, but he smashed the Revere High school record in the process, with his time of 2:35.49 bettering the previous mark of 2:37.20 set by Samnang Ros in 1998.

On the girls’ side at Saturday’s meet, Racquel MacDonald was the top Lady Patriot finisher, taking 10th place in the 55 meter hurdles in 9.35 seconds, which qualified Racquel for the semifinals.

Caramello hits clutch free throws in girls’ victory

Caitlin Caramello sank two free throws with 10 seconds to go to provide the winning margin in an exciting 45-44 victory for the Revere High girls basketball team Friday.

Until Caitlyn made her clutch shots from the charity stripe, the Lady Patriots had trailed for the entire contest, including an eight point deficit with about four minutes to play. Revere would have been further behind, had not Venous Hamza turned in a superb first half effort in which she sank a pair of three pointers and scored nine points to keep her team within striking range.

“Venous kept us alive in that first half,” said RHS head coach Katelyn Leonard.

However, it would prove to be the Lady Patriots’ tenacious defense that turned the tide down the stretch. “What’s great about our team is we don’t quit,” said Leonard. “In the fourthquarter, we stretched our half court man-to-man defense to full court and really started to apply the pressure. We were able to force turnovers and began to creep back into the game.”

With about a minute to go, Caramello stepped to the line for two free throws (Revere was in the double bonus) with the Lady Pats trailing 44-42. Caitlyn missed the front end, but hit the second to draw Revere within a point.

“On the next possession we played lock down defense and forced a missed shot, and Caramello came up with a huge defensive rebound,” said Leonard.

Danvers fouled Caitlin again, but this time she hit both shots to give Revere its first lead of the contest with 10 seconds showing on the clock.

“Our defense then stepped up to the challenge again and forced a bad shot to end the game,” said Leonard, who noted the outstanding defensive work of Jacqui Noel and Jen Fajardo, who were assigned to cover Danvers’ best player.  The duo held her to 12 points, none in the second half.

“The past week we talked a lot about playing to win, rather than playing not to lose,” noted the coach. “I think what happened in the Danvers game was our girls were willing to do whatever it took to win the game. I am very proud of the way they fought back.”

Caramello led the scoring chart for the Lady Pats with 18 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to turn in a huge double-double. Fajardo hit for 12 points, followed by Hamza with nine, Tiphani Harris with three, Noel with two, and Michaela Maguire with one.

Leonard and her crew were set to host Saugus last night (Tuesday) and Lynn English Friday evening.

The Lady Patriot will be playing for the rest of the season without their dynamic captain and leading scorer (16 points per game), junior Gena Restiano, who suffered a torn ACL.

“We all feel so badly for Gena,” said Leonard. “She’s a girl who is constantly working to get better  and does what it takes when nobody is watching. This is a huge loss for us this season.

“But our team is resilient and is ready to step up to the challenge,” added the coach.

RHS boys track meets Marblehead

Although the Revere High boys indoor track team came out on the short end of a 56-30 decision to Marblehead, a number of Patriots turned in fine performances.

Michael Fitzpatrick was the lone Revere competitor to finish in first place in the individual events, capturing the 1000 run in a time of 2:51.6, but Patriots grabbed second places in most of the other contests: Robert Rose in the high jump with a leap of 5-8; Omar Morales with a shotput toss of 43-2; Karim Sahila in the 55 meter hurdles in 8.5; Younes Hartout in the 55 meter dash in 6.9; and Robert Rose in the 300 in 40.5.

Adding one point to the Revere scoresheet with third place performances were: Ricardo Maldonado with a high jump of 5-8; Vito Licata with a throw of 42-7.25 in the shotput; Christian Ortez in the dash in 7.0; Kristi Nushi in the mile in 5:07.2; and John Dello Russo in the two mile in 11:32.

In addition, the Patriot 4 x 400 relay quartet defeated their Marblehead counterparts handily, circling the track in 3:51.2 compared to Marblehead’s 4:00.1.

MacDonald, Gonzalez win for RHS girls

Racquel MacDonald and Angel Gonzalez turned in first place efforts for the Revere High girls indoor track team in their meet last week with Marblehead.

MacDonald captured her specialty, the 55 meter hurdles, in 9.1 seconds, just edging the Marblehead girl who clocked the same official time. Teammate Lindsay Gurska came in third in the hurdles in 9.8.

MacDonald also earned half a point for the Revere cause by tying for third spot in the high jump with a leap of 4-8.

Gonzalez tossed the shotput a distance of 28 feet, 11 inches to bring home first place. Lady Patriot Noelle Galli’s throw of 27 5 was good for third place.

Raychel Adreani completed the Revere scoring with a second place performance in the 55 dash in 8.1 seconds. Lady Patriot Angeli Buenaventura showed the same time as the third place Marblehead girl at 8.4, but the edge went to her opponent.

Comfort Toglon also just missed the scoring column, taking fourth position in the 300 in 48.1. Daniella Fortuna also came close to the top three in the 600 in 2:00.7.

RHS hockey team tie Peabody, 4-4

The Revere High hockey team turned in one of its best performances of the season to come away with a 4-4 tie with Peabody. The teams battled to a 1-1 draw through the first period, with Chris Whalen, assisted by Pat Bartol and Nick Tran, lighting the lamp for Revere just 3:03 into the contest. Peabody evened matters at 12:07.

The Patriots opened up some room in the second frame, scoring twice on lamplightersby Bartol, assisted by Brandon Mastropietro, at 5:29, and Cam Whalen, assisted by Shayne Cambria, less than a minute later.

Revere moved out to a 4-1 advantage at 1:18 of the third stanza on Chris Whalen’s second marker of the night, assisted by R.J. Tiorano and Marco Mazzarelli.

However, Peabody got a chance to change the game’s momentum a minute later when a Patriot was whistled for a penalty. Revere earlier in the game successfully had killed a 5-on-3 Peabody advantage with Drew Lauria, Chris Whalen, and Mazzarelli and Mastropietro turning in a superb job of penalty killing. But this time Peabody took full advantage of the opportunity and scored to narrow the gap to 4-2. Peabody continued to maintain the pressure and pushed across the next two goals to leave matters at 4-4 with 6:44 to play.

Both teams had their chances at notching the potential game winner, but Revere goalie  Jon Papasadora and his Peabody counterpart held firm the rest of the way.

“I told the team after the second period that this was their best game of the season to that point,” said RHS head coach Jim Palumbo. “We were doing all of the little things that make such a big difference and really working together as a team.

“Although Peabody came back to tie, we still continued to play well,” added the coach.

The Patriots are back in action tonight, hosting Beverly at Cronin at 6:30, and then play at Lynn Saturday evening at 8:30.

Boys hoop team falls to Danvers

The Revere High boys basketball team ran into one of the elite teams in the Northeastern Conference this season, Danvers, which came into the contest sporting a 12-1 record, its lone loss coming to Winthrop, which also has only one loss in the NEC.  Danvers features a 6-7 center in George Merry who gives the Falcons a dominating presence at both ends of the floor.

The Pats started slowly, as Danvers took leads of 9-0 and 15-2, at both of which junctures RHS head coach Rick Hayes called timeouts to regroup his charges.

Although the Patriots picked up the pace, they never were able to bounce back from those early deficits, eventually falling by a 56-37 final score.

Alex Urena was high man for Revere with eight points, followed by Chris Palladino and Mike Ciambelli with six apiece, Tom Sor and Dom Boyce with five each, John Leone with three, and Joseph Aud and Geo Gomez with two points each.

The Pats were set to trek to Saugus last night (Tuesday) and to Lynn English Friday before returning home to host Lynn Classical next Tuesday.

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