Thanksgiving 2012: Winthrop’s Driscoll upbeat going into Thursday’s game

Winthrop and Revere share a border, a coastline along the Atlantic ? and a Thanksgiving Day high school football rivalry.Vikings coach Sean Driscoll has hopes that his team can finish its 2012 voyage with a winning record by defeating the Patriots.”Now we’re 5-5 after a big win (over Newburyport),” Driscoll said. “We have a chance to be 6-5, another winning season at Winthrop for the kids to hang their hat on.”The coach saluted his squad for its effort against “a very good Newburyport team,” he said, “which springs us into Thanksgiving week.”He added, “The kids played exceptionally well that game. I thought it was a good way to finish off the league year and get into Thanksgiving. I think the tempo on the offensive side was what we’d been looking for, some consistence along the way.”As for Winthrop-Revere, the coach calls it a “one-game championship.”When the Patriots have the ball, two key players are Joe Ritchie and Tommy Portrait, both of whom Driscoll has seen in person.”Ritchie is one of the better quarterbacks we’re going to face,” Driscoll said. “Portrait is one of the top backs in four years. He’s linebacker-level, and defensively an exceptional player. It’s going to be a pretty good battle.”Revere had a fast start, and got some injuries here and there. Their schedule is harder than or just as good as we are.”He added, “We’ll try to slow down the Revere offense the best we can.”Asked whom the Patriots might double-team on Thanksgiving Day, Driscoll named Dan Feeley and Thomas Lund on defense, both of whom “play very hard” and are three-year starters, the coach said.Offensively, Driscoll said that one of his team’s top backs is Jordan Corbett-Frank, with Ruben Powell and David Gallo in the mix. He called them “three backs I’m confident with, a balanced attack.”Feeley, Gallo and Powell are all captains, along with Jake McKinnon.As for Corbett-Frank, Driscoll said, “one thing he does is his ability to find the open seam.” The coach praised the junior for his “toughness and smarts.”Regarding the other members of the backfield, the coach said, “At fullback, Gallo’s had a tremendous year and Powell is very big and physical.”He noted Powell’s overtime heroics that helped pull out a 13-7 win over Saugus in the league opener, a game he listed as one of the season highlights.He also saluted his team’s efforts in a 26-21 loss to Pentucket, which he called “a great game” that could have gone “either way” and “came down to the end.””Our big problem as a team is that we did not put anything together on a consistent basis,” he said. “We were back and forth. The last few weeks, we settled in.”One issue that the coach did address was the time lag between the Newburyport game and Thanksgiving.”The kids did not welcome the extra time to prepare,” he noted.”I think that’s a big, big thing. How do you prepare for a rivalry game? It’s definitely a different way to prepare.”That game is now hours away.”Winthrop and Revere, it’s been a good rivalry,” Driscoll said, “especially the last 10 years or so. They’ve been close games that could have gone either way.”Here in Winthrop, it’s your rivalry. A one-game championship. Unfortunately, it’s your last game. You develop a relationship with kids, players, who graduate from school.”Yet, he said, “It’s always a fun game.”The people that watch and come out ? it’s a tradition.”Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].