RHS Sports Roundup
RHS girls basketball goes 3-for-3, now 8-6
The Revere High girls basketball team enjoyed a highly-successful week, winning all three of its contests, starting last Monday when the Lady Patriots defeated non-league foe Triton, 42-34.
Carolina Bettero and Emily DiGiulio scored early and often, hitting for 16 and eight points, respectively. In the third quarter captain Erika Cheever picked up the scoring with nine points in the period.
Caroline Stasio controlled the boards and was a disruption all night to Triton’s offense.
“The whole unit played great defense,†said RHS head coach Matt Willis. “We held Triton without a basket in the second quarter and only two baskets in the third.â€
Two nights later at Lynn English, Revere earned a huge win on the road with a 49-43 triumph over a very tough and well-coached Lady Ram squad.
Cheever provided the spark offensively for the Lady Patriots, scoring 25 points, 20 of which came in the first half. Bettero reached double figures with 10 points. Both Bettero and Emily DiGiulio made key baskets and free throws down the stretch at the end of the game to fend off an English comeback.
“Katie O’Donnell and Skyla DeSimone played outstanding defense all night,†added RHS head coach Matt Willis.
The Lady Patriots concluded their winning week with a runaway 50-19 romp over Salem Friday evening at the Merullo Fieldhouse.
Revere assumed command from the outset and never looked back, jumping out to an insurmountable 34-2 advantage in the first half. Willis received a balanced scoring attack from his crew, with Cheever, DiGiulio, Stasio, and Soleil Yuong all contributing in a major way in the scoring department.
Chloe Giordano provided a huge spark for the Lady Patriots, netting seven points and dishing out numerous outstanding assists. DeSimone and O’Donnell made it difficult for the visiting Witches to get into their offense and sparked Revere with some key defensive plays that allowed the Lady Patriots to collect many points in transition in the first half.
The Lady Patriots now stand at 8-6 as they head into the final third of the season and look to secure a spot in the post-season state tourney that will require them to win two of their final six games to finish with the necessary .500 record.
Willis and his crew were set to make the long trek to Gloucester last night (Tuesday) and will host Medford Friday evening. They will travel to Beverly next Tuesday.
RHS hockey team earns tie with Lynn
Although one of the oldest and best-known sports axioms is, “A tie is like kissing your sister,†the 3-3 deadlock at Lynn achieved by the Revere High hockey team this past Saturday afternoon rated as the Patriots’ top performance this season.
Lynn, which has been a combination of Lynn Classical and Lynn English for the past decade or so, entered the contest with a 9-3-2 overall record and 5-2-1 in the Northeastern Conference South Division.
Moreover, the Jets (they are neither Rams nor Bulldogs) were fighting to remain in second place in the NEC South and easily had handled Revere by a score of 6-3 in the teams’ first meeting three weeks previously at Cronin Rink.
In addition, the already-thin Patriots were without the services of two of their key players, Rick Briana and Corey Rufo.
However, Revere gave notice early on in the rematch that they had come to play when freshman Alexio Trichilo scored the first of his two goals for a quick 1-0 Revere lead.
The Patriots maintained their advantage until the final minute of the period when Lynn scored twice in a span of 38 seconds to skate into the locker room with a 2-1 lead.
When the Jets added to their margin with a goal midway through the second stanza, the Lynn squad appeared to be headed to another victory over Revere. However, Trichilo lit the lamp for the second time in the final minute of the period, leaving matters at 3-2 entering the final 15 minutes of play.
Midway through the third period, senior defenseman Matt Cravotta let fly a slap shot from the point that beat the Jet netminder to bring the game back to level at 3-3.
The Patriot defense and goalie JT Bowdridge were immense over the final eight minutes, stymieing a Lynn team that features one off the top-scoring lines on the North Shore.
“This was by far our best game of the season against a top-level team,†said RHS head coach Joe Ciccarello. “Everybody stepped up and JT was awesome in goal.â€
Earlier in the week the Patriots dropped a heartbreaking 3-2 decision to Essex Tech, a team that earlier in the season had blanked the Patriots 3-0.
Revere played what Ciccarello termed “one of our best periods of hockey of the season†to grab a 2-0 lead in the opening stanza thanks to goals by junior Kevin Ivany and senior Andres Cardona.
However, some costly penalties in the second and third periods led to a pair of power play goals by Essex that knotted matters at 2-2. The teams appeared headed for a draw, but a routine flip of the puck into the Revere zone in the closing minutes by an Essex player took a couple of crazy bounces past the Revere defense and then eluded a screened RHS goalie Tristian Goroshko.
“It was a tough way to lose,†said Ciccarello. “Other than giving them some needless penalties that cost us, we had played well and Tristian had done a great job for us. It was just one of those games that was determined by a bounce of the puck.â€
Ciccarello and his crew, who now stand at 2-11-3 on the season, travel to Winthrop Saturday afternoon. They will play at East Boston the following Saturday and then will trek to Peabody on Tuesday, February 19. They will conclude their season at home against Beverly on February 22.
RHS swim team finishes 4th in NEC
The Revere High swim team continued its superb season with an outstanding fourth-place overall finish at the Northeastern Conference championship meet last week at Salem State University.
Among the 13 teams that competed in the meet, the Revere boys finished fifth and the girls finished seventh and combined, the Patriot swimmers came through with a fourth-place ranking.
The meet was held over a two-day period last Tuesday and Wednesday and Revere swimmers turned in fine performances on both days.
In the medley relay, the girls’ team of Isabella Veraldi, Leila Cesic, Sonia Salazar, and Olivia Winsor finished in fourth spot to tally 30 points for the Revere side of the scoresheet. The same quartet also competed in the 200 free relay and finished in fifth place.
The boys’ medley relay quartet of David Del Rio, Ashton Hoang, Andrey Carvalhais, and Jeffery Martinez were fourth to hit the wall and qualified for the state sectionals in the process.
The boys “B†relay foursome of Reked Caushaj, Lucas Hurtado, Ahmed Khalid, and Lucas Mejia took 10th place and scored 14 points,
The boys’ 200 free relay consisting of Del Rio, Carvalhais, Hoang, and William Arias took second place and qualified for sectionals. The boys “B†team of Hassan Gliel, Badr Gliel, Kahlid, and Mejia finished in 15th place and scored four points.
In the 400 free relay, the Lady Patriot quartet of Isabella Restrepo, Grace Rondon, Alexandra Burke, and Jennifer Parada grabbed eighth place to score 22 points for the Revere cause.
The boys foursome in that event, Caushaj, Miguel Leonarte, Arias, and Martinez, captured fifth position for 28 points.
The Revere swimmers also excelled in the individual races. The top performers for coach Chris Hill’s squad were:
Leila Cesic took 1st place in the 50 free and 3rd in the 100 breast;
David Del Rio took 2nd in the 200 IM and 3rd in the 100 back (in which David qualified for the State Tournament);
Andrey Carvalhais was 3rd in the 100 free with a season-best time of 54.23 and 5th in the 100 breast;
Sonia Salazar swam personal record (PR) times in the 200 IM and 100 fly, finishing 9th and 7th in those events;
freshmen Grace Rondon and Miguel Leonarte carried the flag for Revere in the grueling 500 free and both came through with PR clockings. Grace dropped 11 seconds off her previous-best time and Miguel dropped 18;
Isabella Veraldi scored for Revere in the 200 free and the 100 back;
Jeffery Martinez had a season-best time in the 50 free, finishing in 12th place, and also took 12th in the 100 free; senior William Arias scored in the 50 and 100 free, finishing in 8th place; Reked Caushaj turned in a PR for a 7th place finish in the 100 back; and Alexandra Burke finished in 17th place in the 100 breast, scoring for the team and dropping four seconds off her previous fastest time for a new PR.
Hill will bring a nice contingent of RHS swimmers to the state sectionals that are set for this weekend at MIT.
Boys basketball drops pair of games
The Revere High boys basketball team took on the top two teams in the Northeastern Conference this past week.
Last Tuesday night the Bulldogs of Lynn English, ranked third in Eastern Mass., came to the Merullo Fieldhouse.
The Patriots were ready for the challenge early on. Senior co-captain Scotty Montefusco (six points) drained a three-pointer to start the game and junior forward Scott Toglan (six points, eight rebounds) played great on both ends of the floor to keep the underdog Patriots within striking distance.
However, Lynn English also came out on fire, responding with a barrage of long-range bombs of their own, to take a 19-13 lead at the first buzzer.
The second quarter featured a slower pace. Revere began to calm down on offense and step up on defense. Patriot sophomore forward Dillan Day, who was Revere’s leading scorer on the night with 14 points to go with six rebounds, made a nice drive to the basket and then followed with a three-pointer to pull Revere within five with two minutes left in the first half.
The Bulldogs answered before the half ended, as their star point guard, Jarnel Snow-Guzman (21 points), drained consecutive treys before the intermission to give the visitors a 31-24 lead after two periods.
The Patriots continued their solid play on both ends of the floor to start the second half. Junior guard EJ Leone (seven points, six rebounds) and sophomore forward Wilfredo Martinez (seven points, five rebounds) made back-to-back buckets in the lane and Day and Montefusco nailed a three-pointer apiece to cut the Bulldogs’ margin to four points with three minutes left in the third quarter.
“There was a stretch in the third quarter were we played our best basketball of the season, which was encouraging based on the talent we were up against,†said RHS head coach David Leary.
Still, Revere trailed 50-41 heading into the final quarter. The home Patriots’ hot shooting cooled off to start the fourth quarter, while Lynn English found their range again from the three-point arc and pushed their lead to 14 points with four minutes remaining.
The Patriots proved unable to get anything going offensively the rest of the way and ended up on the short end of a 77-45 decision.
“That’s a very talented team,†noted Leary of the Bulldogs, who entered the contest with a 12-0 record in the NEC (15-2 overall) and who have outscored their opponents by an average margin of 28 points (76-48) this season. “We stood toe-to-toe with them for 26 minutes, but unfortunately this is a 32-minute game and with the way they shoot the three-point shot, things can get out of hand quickly and it did in the final quarter.
“Hopefully we can bottle up the way we played in the third quarter and carry it into other games more consistently,†added the coach. “Our kids played their hearts out.â€
Three nights later the Patriots made the trek up Rt. 107 to take on the talented Witches of Salem (9-1 in the NEC and 12-2 overall).
The home team opened the game with an offensive onslaught and jumped on Revere early, moving out to a double digit lead, 12-2, just three minutes into the contest, which the Witches enlarged to 21-5 at the first buzzer.
“We could not get anything going on offense and turned over the ball way too much to lead to easy Salem baskets,†said Leary.
The Revere bench gave the Patriots a lift in the second period. Senior co-captain Sebastian Vanegas (nine points on 3-for-5 from three-point range) and junior Guard Amara Bockarie (five points, five steals, three assists) brought their energy and tenacity on defense.
However, Revere managed to make only a small dent in the early Salem lead to leave the floor trailing, 31-17, at the half.
“We just made too many mistakes early and dug ourselves a huge hole,†said Leary.
Revere opened up the third quarter with four quick points from the sophomore duo of Martinez (five points, five rebounds) and Day (six points, four rebounds) to cut the Salem lead to 10 points, but that would prove to be the apogee of the Patriots’ comeback effort.
The Witches took a 40-25 lead into the fourth quarter and, with the Patriots again continuing to struggle to score consistently, Revere never was able to put together a run to get back in the game. Salem did their job and ran the clock to protect the lead to finish the game with a 55-35 win.
“We are disappointed with the way we came out,†noted Leary. “But give Salem credit. They suffocated us early defensively and we turned it over too much. We need to bounce back from this right away and not focus on the negative. This by far was the worst we have played all season, but we will learn from this and get better.â€
Revere, now 5-9 on the season, was set to host Gloucester last night (Tuesday) and will travel to Medford Friday. They will host Beverly next Tuesday. All games will tip off at the usual 7:00 p.m.
