REVERE — The Revere football team went into Friday’s opener looking to make a statement to start the season. It’s safe to say the Patriots did just that with a 38-8 win over Gloucester at Harry Della Russo Stadium.
“We had this game circled all offseason,” Patriots coach Lou Cicatelli said. “Gloucester is a
good football team. They always had our number throughout the years and we’ve played them tough. This was the first time we beat them since I’ve been coaching. It’s a big win for the program. A big win for myself and my coaches who work their tails off. And it’s definitely a little bit of revenge for sure.”
Joe Llanos had a huge day for the Patriots, taking the opening kickoff 80 yards to start the night and rushing for 180 yards and a touchdown.
“Joe is a kid to watch,” Cicatelli said. “He had around 250 total yards tonight, two touchdowns. He broke his leg last season and came back strong. That’s not easy to do. Hats off to him and he’s a player to watch.”
Quarterback Calvin Boudreau (9-for-16, 134 yards, two touchdowns) also had an impressive night while kicker Rayan Riazi was 5-for-5 on extra points and added a 40-yard field goal.
After Llanos’ 80-yard return Revere fed off the early momentum. The Patriots defense was solid all night, led by defensive tackles Elijah Nater and Alaa Atoui and defensive end Mazer Ali.
“Coach Scott Wlausk does our defense,” Cicatelli said. “Elijah and Alaa, they’re big kids that are hard to move. We do a lot of different stuff up front. We don’t rush much, we stay on the line of scrimmage, try to bring everything to us and have our linebackers clean things up.
“Mazer had some impressive stats tonight,” Cicatelli said. “He had a lot of tackles and he was where he had to be. He had himself a very nice game.”
While the defense did their job the Patriots made the most of their opportunities. Boudreau found Jonathan Murphy on a 46-yard pass that set up a 9-yard touchdown pass to Billy Byrne-Ginepra. On the Patriots next drive Llanos took a sweep 64 yards for a touchdown to stretch the Revere lead to 21-0.
Later in the first half Riazi kicked his 40-yard field goal to put Revere ahead 24-0.
Gloucester got on the board next when Sam Ciolino threw a 65-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Lark to cut the Revere lead to 24-8 (Harrison Marshall 2-point run).
But Revere quickly took back the momentum in the second half. Boudreau found Lucas Barbosa for a 19-yard touchdown to stretch the Revere lead to 31-8.
Later in the fourth quarter Adetayo Atitebi ran for a 15-yard touchdown to cap the 38-8 win for the Patriots.
The Patriots will hope to keep the energy going into next week when they host Peabody Friday (6:30).
“That’s Revere football,” Cicatelli said. “It’s something I’ve always been proud about. We played tough hard nosed football (Friday) on both sides of the ball. I’m really proud of my guys but we have a lot of work to do.”