Winthrop football team defeats Revere

REVERE – Revere (0-3, 0-1 NEC) had gained momentum and was attempting to even the score at 14 until Winthrop’s Justin Casilla picked off a screen pass with 40 seconds left until halftime.Winthrop (2-1, 1-0) scored on the following possession as it defeated the Patriots, 30-13, at Harry Della Russo Stadium on Friday night.”We are struggling on offense right now,” said Revere head coach Lou Cicatelli. “I thought defensively, we made some adjustments in the second half and the guys played their hearts out.”Winthrop halfback Jordan Corbett-Frank had 109 yards on the ground and a touchdown as the Vikings compiled 250 rushing yards. Vikings quarterback Dylan Driscoll threw for 81 yards and scored two rushing touchdowns.The turning point came when Revere had the ball at the Winthrop 31-yard line in the final minute of the first half and the Patriots were trailing 14-7. On second down, Revere quarterback Ravi Ryland tried to dump a screen pass, but Casilla read the play and corralled at the ball at the Vikings’ 40.”They have shown some screen passes before,” said Winthrop head coach Sean Driscoll. “Justin played it perfectly.”The Vikings drove 60 yards on five plays and scored on Driscoll’s 1-yard push over the goal line. Then Driscoll threw a pass to tight end Zach Deeb for the two-point conversion as Winthrop took a 22-7 lead at the half. Driscoll had success on rollouts to the right as he completed passes of 18 and 14 yards to Deeb.Revere fell behind 14-0 early in the second quarter. Winthrop got on the scoreboard on its initial possession. After the Vikings defense held Revere’s offense, Winthrop received the ball at its own 38. On the fourth play from the Patriots’ 49, Winthrop tailback Reise Turansky took a handoff and ran down the middle of the field before he cut to the left and outran the Revere defense down the sideline into the end zone. Driscoll scored Winthrop’s second touchdown on a 5-yard jaunt.The Patriots lost their starting quarterback, Dan Murphy, to a knee injury.”We are hoping it’s just a sprain,” said Cicatelli.Revere got some big runs from Kaleb Silva (121 yards) and Tommy Portrait after Winthrop was unsuccessful on an onside attempt. Portrait punched the ball into the end zone from the 3-yard line to cut the deficit down to one possession.The Patriots were hurt by turnovers, missed tackles, and could not sustain drives in the second half. Their defense stopped Winthrop twice inside the 10-yard line. Revere turned the ball over on downs inside its own 20 and had another pick.”It’s just mistake after mistake after mistake,” said Cicatelli. “I told them we are not going to win games if we keep turning the ball over.”