Sports 12-21-2011

Girls basketball team stifles Lynn Classical

The Revere High girls basketball team won its initial game of the season with a 43-23 victory over Northeastern Conference rival Lynn Classical Friday evening at the local fieldhouse. The triumph also marked the first victory at the helm of the Lady Patriots for their new head coach, Katelyn Leonard.

As the final score indicates, the big story of the contest was the stifling defense applied by Revere.

The Lady Patriots asserted their defensive pressure from the outset and never let up throughout the game’s full 32 minutes. The Lady Patriots created a plethora of turnovers and picked up the intensity in the second half, limiting Classical to just nine points in the final two stanzas.

“The girls turned in a great team effort on defense,,” lauded Leonard. “We stayed with our full court press all game and it paid off with a lot of turnovers.”

The junior captaincy duo of Gina Restiano and Caitlyn Caramello led the way in the scoring column with 17 and 12 points respectively.

Caramello also pulled down 12 rebounds to record a nice double-double.

Senior Venous Hamza added six points, with teammates Amy Rotger, Tiphani Harris, Sam Harris, and Jen Fajardo all chipping in with two points apiece.

The Lady Patriots opened their season a few nights earlier last Tuesday at Lynn English, one of the top rated teams on the North Shore in the pre season.

Although Revere came out on the short end of a 76-61 decision, the contest was a lot closer than the final score might indicate.

“Lynn English is a good team, but what I really liked about our performance was that we never gave up and played hard right to the final buzzer,” commented Leonard. “It set a good tone for the rest of the season.”

Restiano drained four three pointers for a team high 17 points, with Caramello hitting for 12.

Rotger and Tiphani Harris hit for eight each. Hamza and Sam Harris added five apiece, with Fajardo and Michaela Maguire chipping in with three points each. Leonard and her crew were back in action last night, hosting Salem, and will host Beverly Friday evening.

Hockey team ties Swampscott, 2-2

The Revere High hockey team erased a 2-0 deficit to earn a 2-2 tie with Swampscott Saturday evening.

After spotting Swampscott a two goal edge through 9:08 of the first period, R.J. Tiorano put the Pats in the board at 10:10, assisted by linemate Marco Mazzarelli and captain Drew Lauria.

Mazzarelli then evened matters late in the second frame, assisted by Tiorano and Cam Whalen, where matters stood through a scoreless third stanza for the 2-2 finale.

Patriot junior netminder John Papasodora played a pivotal role in the win, turning aside 30 Swampscott shots. “John was superb for us, especially in the second period when Swampscott dominated play,” said RHS head coach Jim Palumbo. “If they had scored and lengthened their lead, it would have made it very tough for us to come back.”

The Patriots endured a frustrating 4-3 loss to Lynn in their season opener Wednesday night. The contest was a see saw affair in which Revere returned every Lynn volley until the fourth and deciding goal in the final period. Tiorano earned the honor of lighting the lamp for the first goal of the 2011-2012 campaign on a power play midway through the first frame, assisted by Lauria and Chris Whalen.

Tiorano scored again to knot matters at 2-2 before the period ended, with assists going to Cam Whalen and Mazzarelli. Mazzarelli lit the lamp midway through the second stanza to even matters at 3-3, assisted by Chris Whalen and Zack Ciampa.

However, Lynn added a fourth goal at 12:15 of the second period to which Revere had no response. The Pats enjoyed a wide advantage in shots on goal, outshooting Lynn 44-19, but the final score did not reflect Revere’s dominance of the game.

“I was pleased with our effort in both games,” said Palumbo. “We deserved a better fate against Lynn, but their goalie played very well. We did a lot of good things, but we need to work on many areas of our game.”

Revere will be back on the ice tonight (Wednesday) against Northeast Regional at Cronin at 6:30 and will travel to former Greater Boston League rival Somerville next Wednesday.

Track team sails past Swampscott

The Revere High boys track team opened the 2011-12 indoor season with a convincing 49-32 win over Swampscott last week.

First place performances came aplenty for the Patriots. Ricardo Maldonado led a Revere sweep in the high jump with a leap of 5-8; Omar Morales captured the shotput with a toss of 45-4.75; Karim Sahila sprinted to victory in the 50 yard hurdles in 7.3 seconds; Mike Fitzpatrick outran the field in the mile in 4:52; and Robert Rose dashed past all competitors in the 300 in 39.7.

However, as is the case in most dual track meets, depth is the key to victory and Coach Jack Mosko’s squad, which features an amazing 130 boys, proved the truth of that maxim against Swampscott with a large number of key second place finishes: Tarik Maddrey with a high jump of 5-6; Vito Licata with a shotput heave of 41-.75; football quarterback Joe Ritchie with a 50 yard dash in 6.0; Rawlings Toglan with a run of 3:02.5 in the 1000; Johnny Lopes with a 40.3 effort in the 300; and Andrew Estrada in the 600 in 1:40.8.

Third place finishers who added single points to the Revere score sheet that put the Patriots over the top came from: Rose with a high jump leap of 5-4; Scott DiMasso-Kane in the 50 hurdles in 7.8; Bonilla Ortez in the 50 dash in 6.1; Walid Halty in the 1000 in 3:06.8; John DelloRusso in the two mile in 12:02.9; and Ben Graciani in the 600 in 1:42.1.

“Robert Rose was an outstanding surprise, winning the 300 in 39.0 and placed third in the high jump,” noted Mosko, who also lauded Ricardo Maldonado’s winning high jump of 5-8 that sealed the Revere victory.

The boys will take on Danvers today (Wednesday) and Winthrop on Tuesday.

Fitzpatrick takes second at Festival meet

Revere High’s ace track and cross country man, Mike Fitzpatrick, added to his growing list of plaudits with a superb second place finish in the 600 meter dash at the Winter Festival (Large School) Invitational Indoor Track & Field Meet held this past weekend at Reggie Lewis Center.

Fitzy’s time of 1:27.13 was less than one second off the winning pace of 1:26.34 and placed him in second spot in the large field of 68 runners.

Also turning in strong performances for the Patriots were Omar Morales with a shotput heave of 44 feet, nine inches, which placed Omar seventh of 69 entrants; Joe Ritchie with a long jump of 19 feet, five inches, which placed him eighth among the field of 49 competitors; Vito Licata with an 18th place effort in the shotput with his toss of 38-9; and Karim Sahila with a 24th place effort in the 55 meter hurdles in 9.26 seconds.

“It was a very good showing for our team at the first big meet of the  year,” said RHS head coach Jack Mosko.

MacDonald wins for girls track team

Racquel MacDonald was the lone victor for the Revere High girls indoor track team in their season debut last week against Swampscott.

MacDonald captured the high jump with a leap of four feet, eight inches to place five points onto the Revere score sheet. MacDonald also added a point to the Revere total with a third place performance in the 50 yard hurdles in 9.1 seconds.

Second place finishers for the Lady Patriots were Angel Gonzalez with a shotput toss of 28-1.75; Lindsay Gurska in the 50 hurdles in 8.6; Nikki Nelson with a two mile run of 13:32.2; and Comfort Toglan in the 300 dash in 50.3.

Adding one point to the Revere tally for third place efforts were: Noelle Galli with a throw of 26-7.5 in the shotput; Raychel Adreani in the 50 dash in 7.0; and Alanna Pasco in the 600 in 2:03.6.

The Lady Patriots will be back in action this evening against Danvers and Tuesday vs. Winthrop.

Encouraging signs for boys basketball squad

Although the Revere High boys basketball team dropped its opening contests last week to perennial Northeastern Conference powers Lynn English and Lynn Classical, Patriot head coach Rick Hayes saw some good signs from his team which will bode well for the season ahead.

English is once again a consensus choice to rate among the elite in Division 1 in the state, but the Pats stayed with the Rams from the outset, trailing by just four at the end of the first quarter and five at the half. With three minutes to go in the third stanza, the contest was still a close one, with the Pats trailing by just six.

However, the potent Lynn English attack went on a mini run in the final minutes of the period, aided by a couple of Revere turnovers, to move out to a 14 point bulge to start the final period. The final period saw English add to its lead for the victory.

“That brief run at the end of the third period changed the game around,” said Hayes, who noted that his team committed 30 turnovers on the night. “You cannot afford to make mistakes against a team like English, so when we made a few in a row, it really cost us.”

Although Hayes was pleased with his team’s hustle and effort, the Pats’ free throw shooting of 17 of 31 was disappointing.  “It was nice to see us take the ball to the hoop and draw fouls against them, but we need to shoot better from the free throw line,” added the coach.

Dom Boyce led the Revere score chart with 13 points. Chris Palladino and Kyle Gotham reached double figures with 10 points each. Mike Dreeszen hit for seven, Alex Urena scored six, and Mike Ciambelli added five. Other Patriots who chipped in with points were Tom Sor and Joseph Aud with three each, Geo Gomez with two, and John Leone with one.

Friday night’s contest at Classical saw the Pats get off to a  slow start with turnovers (17 of them in the first half) once again costing Revere dearly, resulting in a 21 point deficit at the intermission.

Hayes shook up his lineup to start the third frame and the move paid dividends immediately as the Pats sliced the Classical lead to eight by the third buzzer. Though Revere was unable to make it all the way back, the reduction in the turnover statistic to just four over the final two stanzas proved heartening for Hayes and crew, who scored 21 and 24 points in the third and fourth periods.

Sophomore Dreeszen led the way with 13 points and Gotham, whom Hayes described as playing superbly in the first two games, tingled the twine for 12. Urena and Palladino struck for nine points apiece, Ciambelli added five, and Gomez hit for four. Jason Siegel, Sor, and Boyce chipped in two each.

The Pats continue on the road against the iron of the NEC. They traveled to Salem last night (Tuesday) and will trek to Beverly Friday. Hayes and his charges will play in the Pope John XXIII Christmas Tournament next week.