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Everett returns home tonight looking to secure a playoff berth with a win over visiting Revere
By Joe McConnell
After losing to host Brockton in a game that got away from them in the second half, the Everett High School football team (3-4) bounced right back to beat Lynn Classical rather convincingly last Friday night at Lynn’s Manning Field, 48-0. As a result of the decisive victory, the Crimson Tide remains in the Top 16 in the Division 1 state power rankings as the 16th seed. If the regular season ended last weekend, they’d be in the playoffs. But they still have one more regular season game left before the playoffs, and they will play it tonight (Nov. 1) at home against visiting Revere, starting at 6 p.m. Another win over a Greater Boston League (GBL) rival will secure the playoff berth. The postseason begins next Friday night (Nov. 8).
Second-year coach Justin Flores likes what he saw last Friday night against the Rams. “The kids continue to work hard, no matter if we are coming off a win or a loss,” he said. “But we need to continue our upward trend.”
Against the host Rams, there were a number of players who stood out in the victory, according to Flores. “On offense, a lot of guys touched the ball who made an impact, including Jeremiah Clark (3 passing touchdowns for 31, 7, 38 yards), Carlos Rodrigues (1 touchdown reception for 38 yards, 1 rushing touchdown for 66 yards, 1 touchdown pass for 70 yards) and Yariel Ortiz (3 touchdown receptions for 70, 21, 7 yards). But the defense as a whole played well. They allowed less than 50 yards in total offense,” the coach added.
“I was really happy with our second half performance against Classical, especially coming off of the Brockton game, where we didn’t show up in the second half. But we still need to continue to work on our base fundamentals from blocking to tackling.”
Flores changed up his offense somewhat in an attempt to confuse the Lynn Classical defense. He had Clark at quarterback for three of the passing touchdowns, while Rodrigues was behind center for one scoring strike. But the coach was able to utilize his speed as a crafty wide receiver. Running back Manny Santiago also played a significant role on offense in last Friday night’s game with two rushing scores of 16 and 2 yards.
It’s now onto the Revere game at Everett Memorial Stadium tonight (Nov. 1, 6 p.m.), but the Everett coach is not taking anything for granted.
“Revere (3-4, 23rd seed in Division 3) is one of the top GBL teams, even though they didn’t start the season fast, but they have since come on in the last couple of weeks,” Flores said. “On offense, they will look to rely on their quarterback (Danny Hou), who does a good job in both the passing and running games. He will be one of the best athletes that we would have seen this year. On defense, they employ four down linemen, who will look to pressure the offense into making mistakes. They can make a mess of the offensive line.”
