Patriots play valiantly
in Thanksgiving finale
A heavily-underdog Revere High football team turned in one of the most valiant effort ever displayed by a Patriot squad on Thanksgiving Day, but two key plays — both on special teams — proved crucial in a 14-6 loss to Winthrop at a chilly Miller Field.
Revere had been hoping to turn the tables on Winthrop similar to what the Patriots had accomplished last year when they defeated Winthrop on Turkey Day after dropping their first encounter earlier in the season. Winthrop prevailed by a score of 21-0 when the teams first met at the end of September this season, but two mistakes prevented Revere from duplicating their 2013 feat.
Those miscues led to both of the Winthrop’s touchdowns. The first Winthrop score came courtesy of a bad snap on a Revere punt attempt that set up Winthrop at the Revere seven yard line in the first quarter. The second was an 84 yard kickoff return to start the second half.
The Revere defense came through with a magnificent performance, virtually shutting down a potent Winthrop offense and limiting the Vikings, who finished the year at 10-1 and who made it to the finals of the Division 4 North playoffs, to their fewest offensive point output of the season.
“I was very proud of the way our team played,” said RHS head coach Lou Cicatelli, whose counterpart, WHS head coach Sean Driscoll, acknowledged that the Patriots’ defensive strategy was the best his team had faced all year. “We knew coming in what Revere was capable of doing, but we had a plan and we executed it.”
Despite falling behind 14-0 after the Winthrop kickoff return after the intermission, the Patriots refused to quit. They immediately went to work upon receiving the kickoff and launched an 80 yard drive, fueled principally by the Patriot ground game on outside sweeps, that was capped by a superb 20 yard TD pass on a slant pattern from Dan Murphy to Kaleb Silva on a fourth-and-nine.
However, that would prove to be the apogee of the Patriots’ comeback effort. The contest turned into a defensive battle the rest of the way with neither team able to make a foray into scoring territory.
“We never gave up and that has been a hallmark of our team all season,” said Cicatelli, whose Patriots made their first post-season appearance in the second year of the new MIAA’s new football playoff setup. “
