After ending last year with a heartbreaking loss to Gloucester, the Revere High School Patriots football team has come back bigger and better this year. The team, which started 2-2 last year, has come out to a thunderous 4-0 start. Over the last four Fridays, the team has demolished teams like Gloucester, Peobody, Lynn Classical, and Saugus. But who or what should be given credit for this hot start?

According to Coach Lou Cicatelli, “Last year we had a lot of injuries, so we got a lot of guys back this year. So I think that our off-season program was a big help. Kids in the weight room, working out, working hard, getting better.” He also credited the hot start to 7 on 7s, passings leagues and doing everything they possibly could to get better. Another big part of the team’s success is the team’s work ethic and their connection with each other. 

“They put the time to get better. Everything we do is based on family atmosphere.” Both these things are self evident in every play of each RHS Patriots game, “whether it’s congratulating someone for getting a sack,” or scoring a touchdown. The team is brought together by their five captains: Mazer Ali, Lucas Barbosa, Zach Furlong, Jonathon Murphy, and Jaryd Benson. 

“All great choices,” says Cicatelli. The five leaders help their team in the locker room, the classroom and most importantly on the field. All five have been in the program for four years and are dominant at their position.   

Last year the team lost in the second round of the playoffs to Gloucester 38-7. The team was left distraught, but this didn’t deter them from their goal for next year. Cicatelli said, “That’s something we had circled on our schedule…When we beat them it kind of set the stage and the tone for us to have the positive season we are having so far.” 

In this revenge game,the first game of the year, the RHS Patriots won 38 to 8. As Cicatelli said the game set the tone for the next games as the RHS Patriots won 24-0, 43-26, and 40-13 in weeks prior. As the wins piled up, so did the recognition for the RHS Patriots. 

The team,as of now, is ranked 2011th nationally, 14th in the state, and 4th in division 4 rankings according to Maxpreps, a website that takes into account the wins of a team and who they play against and ranks the teams.

 “Yea you want to do better. You want to stay in the top 15 or 20, whatever it is. You want to keep getting positive press as a team,” says Cicatelli. Other achievements were that junior Rayan Riazi won the Boston Herald’s Player of the Week for the end of September, and coach Lou Cicatelli won the New England RHS Patriots coach of the week award for the start of October. Another big “win” for the team was their feature on channel Five News for The Morning Five. Even with all the success, the team has said there are still haters out there. 

Something that Cicatelli said towards these haters is, “We don’t really care about that stuff. The boys will tell you we’re a very focused bunch. We just want to do our job week in and week out.” 

Hopefully the team continues its win streak and gets a shot to make a big playoff run.