Girls Track Team Defeats Salem, 54-32

The Revere High girls indoor track team won six of the nine individual events as well as the 4 x 400 relay to defeat Salem, 54-32, last Monday.

Coach Antonio LaBruna’s Lady Patriots now stand at 3-2 on the season.

Leading the way for the Revere squad was Brenda Rudecindo, who accounted for eight points with a first place finish in the 50 yard hurdles in a time of 8.4 seconds and a second in the high jump with a leap of 4-8 (four feet, eight inches).

Other first place finishers for Revere were: Janice Destefano in the shot-put with a toss of 32-10 3/4, a personal record that maintained her unbeaten skein this winter; Comfort Toglan in the 300 with a time of 46.6;

Yesmenia Arango in the 600 with a clocking of  2:02; Danielle Fortuna in the 1000 in 3:44.6; and captain Nikki Nelson with a mile run of 5:49. The Lady Patriot foursome of Toglan, Vanessa Leone, Jessica Cambria, and Nelson handily captured the 4 x 400 relay with a clocking of 4:55 compared to their Salem counterparts’ time of 5:08.

Lady Patriots who contributed three points to the Revere cause with important second place finishes were: Jacqueline Pisano in the 50 hurdles in 8.8; Angelisa Nguyen in the 50 yard dash in 7.0; Jacklynne Dion in the mile in 6:22.6; and Suellen Guerreiro in the two mile with a run of 14:22.

Third place efforts, good for one point each on the Revere side of the score sheet, came from: Lauren Hayes with a shot-put toss of 25-6; Angelica Nguyen in the 50 dash in 7.1; Una Causevic in the 300 dash in 52.4; and

Joanna Severino in the two mile in 15:06.

“This was our best meet to date,” said LaBruna, “not only winning what I anticipated would be a close meet, but most of our kids turned in their best times of the season. Janice threw a PR of 32-10 3/4. She is undefeated this season in shotput and is easily one of the top throwers in the league.

“Brenda Rudecindo is starting to show consistency in the high jump, clearing 4-8 for her second meet in a row, and had three very good attempts

at 4-10,” continued LaBruna. “A goal of Brenda’s going into the season was to qualify for states which is 4-11 in our division. I will have her be focusing on high jump a bit more towards the back end of our season and am very confident she will make a qualifying jump.”

Close encounter for RHS trackmen vs.Salem

The Revere High boys indoor track team dropped a closely-contested meet with Salem last week, coming out on the short end of a 49-37 decision.

Four members of the Patriot squad earned first place finishes in their respective individual events: Daniel Murphy sped to victory in the 300 dash in 41.2 seconds; Bounlaing Chea outran the field in the 600 dash in 1:40.3;

Salah Barhoum handily outdistanced the competition in the mile run in 5:17, which was 20 seconds faster than his nearest rival; and John DelloRusso won the two mile in 11:20, which was 23 seconds faster than his closest Salem foe.

Second place finishers for Revere who put three points onto the Revere side of the scoresheet were: Tarik Maddrey with a high jump of six feet (6-0); Brett Deukmejianwith a shotput  toss of 41-2; Younes Hartout in the 50 yard dash in 5.9; and Frank Davidson with a clocking of 3:02 in the 1000.

Patriots who scored single points for their third place performances were:

Anthony DeStefano with a shotput heave of 39-7; Joseph Gonzalez in the 50 yard hurdles in 7.4; Richard Damiano in the 600 in 1:45.3; Sebastian Mejia in the 1000 in 3:06; and Jay Mistri in the two mile in 12:28.

“It was another heartbreaking loss,” said RHS head coach Sam Ross afterwards. “We came close, but it wasn’t enough.  I kept Tarik (Maddrey) out of the hurdles because his leg wasn’t 100% from when he injured it against Beverly, hoping that he had enough to win the high jump.  Despite being injured, he jumped well enough that he could have won. He was over the bar a good 4-6 inches, but was unable to kick his legs well to fully clear it.

“Even though we’ve lost the last couple of meets, I am encouraged by things to come in the future because our team is young,” added Ros. “Hopefully, everyone keeps improving.”

Patriot hoopmen fall to Danvers, Gloucester

It was a tough week for the Revere High boys basketball team, which dropped both of its encounters by scores of 82-58 to Danvers and 72-54 to Gloucester.

Friday night’s contest at highly-ranked Danvers, the defending Division 2 state champ that once again is at the top of the polls, began well enough, but early foul trouble to Revere’s key inside men, Mike Ciambelli and Doug Zingali, that sent them to the bench, soon allowed Danvers to take control both down low and of the game.

What had been a fairly-even first period (18-11 in Danvers’ favor), turned into a 38-22 Danvers’ advantage at the half. With Zingali fouling out in the third period and Ciambelli following soon thereafter, the contest stood at 61-31 after three frames. The Patriots scored 27 points (to 21 for Danvers) in the final eight minutes to establish the final score of 82-58.

“It was a good game very early, but got ugly just as fast,” said RHS head coach Adam Rizzo. “When both teams were allowed to play basketball, there was good flow and pace for both teams. We were able to get up and down, run some offense, and answer every bucket that Danvers scored.

“Unfortunately, when the refs decided to put their stamp on the game, it got out of hand,” continued Rizzo. “Questionable foul calls on both of our big men, Mike Ciambelli and Doug Zingali, sent them to the bench and Danvers was able to exploit our lack of size. We knew we could play with Danvers if the refs allowed us to do so, but it wasn’t going to happen.

“Early in the third it was more of the same,” Rizzo added. “Even when we avoided making any contact at all, the whistles kept coming.

Zingali fouled out just minutes into the second half as we racked up 11 fouls in the first five minutes of the third quarter. This also resulted in Mike Ciambelli fouling out.”

However, despite the final outcome, Rizzo was pleased with his team’s fine effort in the fourth period.

“In the fourth quarter we just focused on trying to play good, hard, team basketball as we were preparing to play Beverly the next night.

We could have just folded and just packed it in, but the kids who played the fourth period for us went out and did everything right and that’s all I could ask for,” said the coach. “We were able to score 27 in the final frame, with Tommy Chea scoring all of his career-high 11 points in the quarter. Steve Selevitch was able to chip in 7 and Nermin Ibreljic added 6 in the fourth as well.

“Going into a meeting against a top-15 team in the state we knew we had to play a complete game to get a win and we were prepared to do that. Unfortunately, we weren’t given a chance to do that and things didn’t go our way.”

Three Patriots scored in double figures, led by Ciambelli with 12 points. Chea and Jason Seigal hit for 11 points each, followed by Selevitch with nine, Ibrejic with seven, Zingali with three, and Dante Lauria and Mike Dreeszen with two apiece.

Last Tuesday the Patriots hosted Gloucester and came out on the short end of a 72-54 decision. Revere held a 19-18 lead after one period and trailed by just four at the half, 33-29. However, Gloucester came out firing after the intermission, outscoring the Pats 23-12 in the third frame to move out to a 56-41 advantage that Revere proved unable to cut into.

“Our jumpers weren’t falling at all, making for easily our worst shooting night on the season,” commented Rizzo. “Defensively, we couldn’t stop them from scoring whether we went man or zone.Gloucester was a very good, fundamentally-sound team that pushed the ball hard in transition and had the weapons to score in the half court set as well. They’re a tough team for sure, but we didn’t give them our best game.

“The first quarter we traded buckets back and forth, allowing us to have a small lead,” continued the coach.”After that, the offense came to a screeching halt and it definitely affected our effort on the defensive end. We encouraged our shooters to continue to take the open shot, hoping they could shoot their way out of a funk, but they just weren’t falling. In the second half, we knew we needed stops and buckets. Unfortunately when we got one, the other didn’t follow. We struggled to follow up a stop with a bucket and vice-versa. “Ciambelli was high man for the Pats in the scoring column, pouring in 31 points, many of which came on outstanding post moves on his own or from dribble penetration by Patriot point guard Jason Seigal, who then dished off to Ciambelli for open layups.

In addition to his 31 points, Ciambelli made it a nice double-double evening by pulling down 10 rebounds. Seigal almost attained a double-double with 13 points and eight assists. Ravi Ryland was next on the point chart with seven points, followed by Dante Lauria with two, and Dreeszen with a free throw.

The Pats had been scheduled to play Beverly Saturday in a make-up game, but that contest too, was snowed out. Rizzo and his squad, who now stand at 4-7 just past the midpoint of the season, host Swampscott Friday, travel to Winthrop Tuesday, and come back home to face Chelsea Wednesday. Tip-off time for all games is the usual 7:00.

RHS hockey team falls to Lynn, 7-4

The Revere High hockey team dropped a 7-4 decision to Lynn last Wednesday in a battle for first place in the South Division of the Northeastern Conference.

After spotting Lynn a 1-0 lead in the opening period, Marco Mazzarelli got the equalizer to knot matters at 1-1. However, Lynn lit the lamp with just 0:12 left in the period to skate into the locker room with a 2-1 advantage.

“That late goal by them gave the a big boost and deflated us,” said RHS head coach Joe Ciccarello.

Lynn carried its momentum into the second stanza, scoring early in the period and then, after a goal by Patriot Steve Noel made it a 3-2 contest, reeling off three unanswered goals in a matter of a few minutes to take a 6-2 lead into the final stanza.

“We simply had too many breakdowns on defense,” said Ciccarello. “We hadn’t been playing with a lot of energy throughout the game and it finally caught up to us at the end of the second period.”

However, the Pats finally caught fire to start the final 15 minutes. Goals by Brandon Mastropietro and Joe Ristaino sliced the Lynn margin in half to 6-4 and the momentum clearly had shifted to the Patriots’ side. But a huge comeback was not to be in the cards. Though Revere outshot Lynn 15-3 in the final frame, a bad bounce of the puck handed a breakaway to a Lynn skater, who took advantage of the opportunity to reinstate the Lynn lead back to three goals.

Revere had been scheduled to host Salem Saturday, but the snow squall forced a postponement. Ciccarello and his crew, who stand at 6-3-2 just past the midpoint of the season, play at Northeast Regional tonight (Wednesday) in a non-league encounter and will host Swampscott Saturday at 5:10. The Patriots will stay at Cronin to entertain Lynn next Wednesday for a 6:10 face-off with first place in the NEC South possibly at stake.

RHS girls win two of three

The Revere High girls basketball team enjoyed a successful week,winning two of its three games with big victories coming against Northeastern Conference South Division rivals.

On Tuesday the Lady Patriots made the long trek to Gloucester a worthwhile journey with a 45-41 triumph over the Lady Fishermen. Revere came out hard and fast in the opening half, employing a full court press, to take a 20-14 lead into the locker room.

On the offensive end, Tiphani Harris controlled the inside game for Revere with six points, while Adanna Hector did the damage from long-range, draining a pair of three pointers.

The Lady Patriots extended their lead to nine after three frames, thanks primarily to Jen Fajardo, who was able to capitalize on steals and score eight points in the eight minute quarter.

However, Gloucester did not go away quietly and mounted a comeback surge in the final period. The Lady Fishermen cut the Revere lead to two points with a basket with 0:02 to play, but a touchdown pass to Harris resulted in a final Revere bucket for the four point differential.

“This was a great road win for us,” said RHS head coach Katelyn Leonard.  “Gloucester is a team looking for its first win — they are a resilient team that doesn’t give up. In the fourth they did mount a comeback, but it wasn’t enough. Each time they scored, we answered.”

Harris turned in a superb all-around evening with a double-double that featured a career-high 16 points and 14 rebounds to go along with five steals. Fajardo hit for 13 points, another career-high, and dished out six assists. Hector was next on the scoring chart with eight points, followed by Ally Hinojosa with six and Angela Curtis and Ivonne Zapata with a free throw each.

Sandwiched in-between the two wins was a 59-37 loss to non-league rival Hamilton-Wenham last Wednesday. After falling behind by a 20-4 deficit in the first five minutes, the Lady Patriots gathered some steam of their own and sliced the margin to six by the half, 26-20.

However, the Lady Patriots could not sustain their momentum after the intermission and Hamilton-Wenham pulled away for the win.

“In the third quarter, Hamilton-Wenham’s pressure defense got to us,causing numerous turnovers and not allowing us to set up our offense,”observed Leonard. “Their defense was strong and turnovers are something that have hurt us all season long. If we continue to work to cut them down and give ourselves more opportunity to score, we will have a greater chance of beating many teams.”

Fajardo led Revere with nine points. Zapata added eight and Meaghan Gotham hit for six points to go with eight rebounds Logan DiCarlo,Trisha Cheever, and Hector contributed four points apiece, while Harris notched two points. This past Friday the Lady Patriots hosted Danvers, another  Northeastern Conference South Division foe, that sported a 6-3 record coming into the matchup, and earned another hard-fought triumph, 49-46.

Revere started fast, grabbing a 15-9 lead after one period thanks  primarily to the outstanding outside shooting of Hector, who sank a trio of treys in the opening stanza. The Lady Patriots maintained their edge at the half, 25-18, with Harris once again reigning as a dominating force in the paint, scoring eight points.

Danvers battled back after the intermission and eventually closed the gap to two points entering the final eight minutes. However, though  the Lady Patriots bent, they did not not break, and rode the combination of three successive hoops from three-point land by Cassandra DiBella and six clutch free throws down the stretch by Hector to seal the victory.

“Cass had ice in her veins,” noted Leonard. “Danvers really didn’t know what hit them — those shots were huge.”

Hector led Revere with a career-high 17 points and also made five steals. DiBella also recorded a career-high with nine points. Harris chipped in eight points to go with her 12 rebounds and Gotham scored six points and had another strong game on the boards, grabbing six caroms.

“After the loss to Hamilton-Wenham, we got together as a team to really work on finding the on-court chemistry, and it showed against Danvers,” said Leonard. “This was the first time we put four full quarters of basketball together.We cut our turnovers in half, worked together to get the best shot, and really played great team defense.

“I’m really proud of how we played,” continued the coach. “I attribute that to the leadership of our senior class. From the five players on the floor to everyone on the bench, the entire team came together and that is why we won. If we can carry this enthusiasm and teamwork into the rest of our games, I think we can surprise some teams.” Leonard and her crew, who now stand at 4-7 at the midpoint of the season, play at Swampscott Friday and host Winthrop Tuesday.

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