THE REVERE ADVOCATE – WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2020 Page 7 FOOTBALL | FROM Page 1 a high-scoring aff air by a comfortable 46-31 margin. Last year’s Thanksgiving contest was played at Winthrop. This year’s game would have commenced at Harry Della Russo Stadium, where the Patriots went unbeaten in 2019. With returnees, such as quarterback Calvin Boudreau and receiver Billy Byrne-Ginepra, on this year’s roster, Revere had aspirations to make 2020 another top-fl ight season. After last year’s Thanksgiving win, Cicatelli pointed out that the team had a lot of top talent coming back for this year. “Will we be as good as we were [in 2019]? Who knows? But I do know we’re going to work hard to get back and compete.” Joe Llanos followed the block of Ryan Doucette and Joshua Laurina for a TD run against the Vikings in last year’s Turkey Day victory. Lucas Barbosa followed Billy Byrne-Ginepra’s block and raced to the end zone, putting the Patriots back on top after the Vikings had tied the score at 19-19. (Advocate File Photos) T-DAY | FROM Page 1 In Malden, it means no game for the fi rst time since 1888! Their game with Medford is the second-oldest continuous rivalry in the nation, for goodness’ sake! Game #133 was supposed to be tomorrow. “Was” is the operative word. Not happening now, kids. How about in Revere? Tomorrow the Patriots were supposed to be meeting traditional rival Winthrop for the 92nd time. Oh, what a glorious day it will be in 2028 for the Centennial 100th meeting! Uh, wait a minute. That will be delayed a year, now. At least. And in Saugus? It would have been the 74th meeting with Peabody between the longtime Turkey Day foes. Last year the fi nal game in storied Sachem history was played at good old Stackpole Field as the new Saugus High includes a new football fi eld as well. Will this game now be played sometime next March? Will Saugus still get a home game to open its new fi eld in the fall of 2021? You need Agatha Christie to write the next chapter of this mystery. The pain in Everett will not be quite as severe, as the Crimson Tide was looking at a year without a Thanksgiving Day game anyway, as Masconomet, which had played Everett on Turkey Day the past couple of years, including a game at Fenway Park in fabled coach John DiBiaso’s fi nale, had pulled out of the relationship after three years. Not having any football all this fall season stung just as sharply as at the other schools, though. There will be the regular NFL games fl ooding the TVs tomorrow, of course, but it will not be even close to the same. High school football on Thanksgiving is oh, so much more than just going to the game – seeing old teammates, renewing friendships with former classmates and just getting out there and soaking it all in, whether your team wins or does not. How many of us see people at Thanksgiving football games and that is the only time we see them all year! Most of us? All of us? We cherish those moments so much and we look forward to them all year. Thanksgiving Day football matters. It really does, and now it is simply not going to happen because of COVID-19, a sinister thief over which we have no control. This is going to be a very tough loss in a year in which we have already lost so much. Now we know exactly how Charlie Brown feels the second after Lucy pulls the ball away.
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