GLOUCESTER — Friday night’s Division 4 North semifinal between No. 2 Gloucester and No. 6 Revere at Newell Stadium was a tale of two halves. The first half was tightly played, with the Patriots clinging to a one-point lead. The second half saw the Fishermen flip the script and score 32 unanswered points en route to a 38-7 Gloucester win.
“They certainly kicked our butts in the second half,” Revere coach Lou Cicatelli said. “We had no answer for their power game, and they took it to us. Tip your cap to them; we couldn’t stop them in the second half. We did a great job stopping them in the first half but they really handed it to us in the second half.”
The Patriots scored on the game’s first possession, marching from their own 39 in five plays to grab the early lead. Darius McNeil opened the series with a 46-yard run deep into Gloucester territory. McNeil got the call again at the eight, and took quarterback Jonathan Murphy’s pitch and swept around the left end, untouched into the end zone. Murphy tacked on the extra point, and that was it for Revere with 8:18 left in the first quarter.
Gloucester took the ball into the end zone on its first possession as well, eating up most of the first quarter before quarterback James Nelson dove in from one yard out. The conversion rush failed and the Fishermen trailed 7-6, where it stayed at halftime.
Gloucester got the ball to start the second half, and took over the game right away. Mark Smith ran in from eight yards out, and Daylon Lark’s conversion rush put the home team ahead to stay, 14-7.
The Fishermen forced Revere into a three-and-out, and used one play, a 52-yard run by Jan Pena-Ortiz, to get into the end zone for the third time. Pena-Ortiz ran the conversion in to make the score 22-7, with seven minutes left in the third quarter.
Pena-Ortiz wasn’t done yet; he scored on a 46-yard burst in the next series, with Marc Smith rushing in for two points, to put Gloucester up 30-7. The Fishermen got their last score through the air, when Murphy threw a strike to tight end Benjamin Renales from nine yards out in the fourth quarter.
It was the first touchdown of the season for Renales, who’s usually found throwing blocks for Pena-Ortiz, Smith, Lark, Nicholas Filho and co-captain Ryan Argentino. The only bad news for the Fishermen was that Argentino broke his leg in the second quarter and is done for the year.
“There are no easy games at this time of year, you take a beating every week, and the competition gets better and better every week,” Gloucester coach Tony Zerilli said. “I told my guys that this is the grittiest bunch of guys I’ve ever been around, we had injuries, we lost three kids before the game, we lost guys during the game, and they came out, battled and got a huge win.”
The Patriots drop into the non-playoff bracket and await their next opponent (TBA). Gloucester advances to next weekend’s Division 4 North final when the Fishermen will host No. 5 Wayland.
