GBL Cup: Revere High soccer opens play against Everett

Revere High boys soccer entered the first Greater Boston League Cup tournament on Tuesday as the top seed and the league's only undefeated team. The Patriots, who finished the regular season with a perfect 7-0 record in GBL play, faced Everett, the league's fourth-place team, in the opening match of the new bracket.

The GBL Cup is a first for the league. Athletic directors voted to reduce regular-season matchups from two to one, then added this tournament for the top four teams. The lower four teams will compete in a separate bracket using the same preliminary-final format.

Coach Gerardo Rodriguez's squad enters the cup with a season record of 12-1-1. Revere extended its winning streak to 13 games after beating Somerville 3-2 last Tuesday and Brockton 3-1 last Friday. The only loss this season came in the opener in early September, a 3-2 defeat to Central Catholic.

The winner of the Revere-Everett match will play the victor of the Chelsea-Somerville game on Thursday. That final determines the inaugural GBL Cup champion. The two losing teams will play a consolation match.

Revere is currently ranked 14th in MIAA Division 2 power ratings. That ranking would guarantee the Patriots a home game in the first round of the state tournament, which begins after the cup concludes.

In boys cross country, Revere finished the dual-meet season with a 26-29 victory over Everett on Wednesday. Kosta Stamotopoulos and Diogo Yogi finished first and second, clocking times of 17:22 and 17:26 respectively. Luke Imperato placed sixth in 19:34, Emanuel Taylor seventh in 19:54, and Javier Lopez tenth in 22:18 to secure the team win.

Coach Mike Flynn noted the race was extremely close, with every result counting toward the final score. The team prepares for the GBL League Meet scheduled for today at Torbert Macdonald Park in Medford.

The Revere High girls soccer team moved closer to a state tournament berth with a 2-0 win at Lowell on Friday. The Lady Patriots, now 8-7-1, need only one point from their final two games to secure the .500 record required for MIAA Division 3 post-season play.

Those final two games will take place in the GBL Cup consolation bracket. Revere, the league's sixth-place team, played seventh-place Lynn Classica on Tuesday and will face either fifth-place Everett or eighth-place Lynn English on Thursday. The top four GBL teams, including Somerville, Medford, Chelsea, and Malden, are competing in the championship bracket.

The girls volleyball team needs three straight wins to reach the .500 record required for the state tournament. They are currently 7-10 after losses to Malden, Somerville, and Beverly last week. Their final three matches include a game at Everett last Monday, a home match against Lynn Classical today, and a trip to Medford on Friday.