One Play Away: Revere Beats Winthrop, 16-13, in Holiday Thriller

Oh, so close.

The Winthrop High football team, in what should have been a rebuilding year with the graduation of a superb senior class, was one play away from beating playoff team Medway, Super Bowl qualifier Rockland, and as it turned out an 8-2 Revere High team in the Thanksgiving game.

It was Revere that made at least one more big play than Winthrop and the Patriots emerged with a 16-13 victory over the Vikings before a large crowd at Harry Della Russo Stadium.

The Winthrop defense, led by seniors Peter Jurovich and Ian Harris, had brought Revere’s potent offense to a complete halt in the first half. When the Revere punter was unable to handle smoothly the snap from center, Winthrop had the ball deep in Revere territory. The Vikings capitalized and led 6-0, thanks to a nifty scramble and touchdown pass from quarterback Robert Noonan to the Vikings’ terrific wide receiver Mikey Chaves.

But Revere turned the momentum its way with Augusto Goncalves’ huge block of a Winthrop punt in the third quarter leading to Revere’s first touchdown and a 7-6 lead on a Davi Barreto rush.

“We worked on it all week long – the first couple of punts we blocked it the way we should have blocked, but we just didn’t execute that one the way we did the previous ones,” said Winthrop head coach Jonathan Cadigan. “Obviously that was a big play in the game. Up until that point, we were dominating the game defensively.”

Revere would build its lead to 16-6 on an intentional safety by Winthrop and a QB sneak by Anwar Marbouh. But Noonan and Chaves connected for a scintillating, fourth-down, 75-yard pass play in which Chaves soared for the football in front of a Revere defender and then sprinted between defenders to the end zone. It was a classic moment for Chaves, who was such an inspirational performer the past two seasons, including his major role on the Vikings’ 2020 NEC championship team.

“Mikey made a great play to get us back in the game,” said Cadigan.

But while the Winthrop defense held Revere in check, the Vikings’ offense – despite having its chances and driving inside the RHS 40-yard line – was unable to produce the key score it needed late in the fourth quarter.

“Whenever you lose by three points, there’s always a play here, or a play there,” said Cadigan. “But at the end of the day, we played well, but we didn’t play well enough and make a play when we had to.”

Defense Plays Well in Defeat

Coach Cadigan lauded assistant coaches James Fucillo, Derek Brodin, and Nick McCarthy for preparing the Vikings’ defense well for Revere’s high-scoring offense.

 â€œWe were lights-out on defense for three-and-a-half quarters,” said Cadigan. “I thought we played phenomenal defense. We had three, fourth-down stops. We played well enough defensively to win that game.”

Cadigan said Revere, which has won the last five Thanksgiving games, “is playing probably as well as they ever have program-wise, year after year.”

“It’s a tall task playing on Thanksgiving any way, but Revere’s program is playing very well, and we have to match that if we want to get that trophy back,” said the coach.

Revere Stops Winthrop on Fourth-and-One Play

The Revere defense was able to contain Winthrop’s All-Star running back Cam Martin on a fourth-and-one play at midfield. Winthrop went east-west on the play.

“Cam’s our best back and we ran the ball behind Pete [Jurovich], who’s our best lineman, and you watch it one the film and we just didn’t execute it,” said Cadigan. “We had the corner, and we were one block away and their guys made the tackle.”

Reflecting on the one play away theme, Cadigan said, “I feel like we’ve been one play away quite a bit, and that’s kind of the disappointing part as a coach – you try to get to coach your guys up on that one play, but that seemed to be the story for us.”

Praise for the Senior Class

“I thoroughly enjoyed coaching our seniors,” said Coach Cadigan. “I know the record (5-6) wasn’t what we wanted it to be, but they were really a fun group to coach, and that’s what I’m always going to remember them as.”