RICHFIELD, Ohio — For a quarter and a half Friday night, Revere did everything except score. Then the Minutemen stopped waiting for the game to come to them and ran it over, blanking Holy Name 21-0 in a Division III, Region 10 first-round playoff game for the second home postseason win in program history, according to the Akron Beacon Journal’s game report.
The start was pure frustration. Revere’s first three drives all reached the red zone in the opening 14 minutes and 34 seconds, and all three ended without a single point, the Beacon Journal reported. A less settled team might have unraveled. Revere instead went back to work.
The breakthrough came on the Minutemen’s fourth drive, a 40-yard march made up entirely of runs. Lane Shenigo capped it with a 3-yard touchdown run with 4:09 left in the first half, meeting a Holy Name safety at the line of scrimmage and carrying him into the end zone, according to the Beacon Journal.
Shenigo struck again just before halftime. Taking a screen pass from Carter Hajdu on third-and-3, he went 26 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 34 seconds left in the half. “That drive was awesome,” Shenigo told the Akron Beacon Journal. “I give all credit to my linemen.”
By then the numbers told a lopsided story. Revere held first-half advantages of 13-0 in first downs and 226-1 in total yards, the Beacon Journal reported. Shenigo finished with 26 carries for 138 yards to go with his two touchdowns — one rushing, one receiving.
Holy Name (5-5) did not fold after the break. The Green Wave marched into Revere territory on back-to-back second-half possessions, but the Minutemen turned them away both times to preserve the shutout, according to the Beacon Journal.
Junior Liam Drvenkar finally put the game away with a 31-yard touchdown run, closing the scoring at 21-0 and sending the No. 8 seed Minutemen (7-4) into the regional quarterfinals at the expense of the No. 9 seed Green Wave.
“There’s just no panic anymore,” Revere coach Bobby Nickol told the Akron Beacon Journal. “The kids have learned how to win.” Nickol credited a senior class that has reached the playoffs in all four of its seasons, telling the Beacon Journal the seniors “have learned as underclassmen and kind of just built themselves up, and now they’re the leaders of the team.”
Revere was one of five Akron-area winners on the first playoff night. Elsewhere in the region, Hoban rolled past Villa Angela-St. Joseph 38-7 to set up a Walsh Jesuit rematch, and Hudson routed Euclid 52-12 behind Hayden Lipinski’s six touchdowns.
Friday was also a first: there is no record of Revere and Holy Name ever playing before this postseason, with Ohio High School Football Database records going back to 1972, the Beacon Journal reported. The Green Wave arrived in Richfield at 5-4 off a win at Padua Franciscan and left at 5-5, shut out by a defense that allowed a single yard before halftime.
For Revere, the win adds a line to a long but thin postseason history. This is the Minutemen’s 13th playoff appearance, and the program has reached the state semifinals twice, in 1980 and 1990, finishing as state runner-up in 1990, according to the Beacon Journal’s Week 12 preview. Home wins in that history have been rare enough that Friday’s was only the second — a measure of how much this senior class has changed the program’s expectations.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the 21-0 final, Shenigo’s 138 rushing yards and two scores, and the first-half statistical shutout are confirmed in the Akron Beacon Journal’s report. A complete official box score and Celina’s full scouting details for next week’s quarterfinal had not been published as of Saturday morning.
What happens next: Revere travels to No. 1 seed Celina (9-1) for the Region 10 quarterfinal on Friday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. It will be the first meeting between the two schools, according to the Beacon Journal’s Week 12 matchup preview — and the Minutemen will need the same poise that carried them through Friday’s scoreless start.
Photo: SilentMatt Psychedelic, CC BY-SA 4.0