Of course, it's always better for the Panthers when Bailey is in the lineup.
Winless Revere valiantly tried to keep Bailey under wraps by playing ball control on an extremely muddy field last night. It worked for the first quarter. But once the Beverly defense gathered itself and stopped Revere cold, Bailey and the Panthers' offense went wild, scoring 24 unanswered points in the middle two quarters and coasting home with a 24-8 road win.
Beverly improved to 5-1 and dropped the Patriots to 0-6.
Bailey, who missed last Saturday's Danvers game (a 35-14 triumph) with a right ankle injury, looked like he didn't miss a beat last night, scoring three touchdowns and finishing with 177 yards on just 13 carries.
Beverly also got a tremendous momentum boost on the final play of the first half when junior Llazar Cuko, fighting the tricky wind and horrendous field conditions, nailed a 29-yard field goal on a low line drive that hit the goal post and crawled over, giving the Panthers a 10-0 lead.
Meanwhile, the Beverly defense did its part, smothering the Patriots over the last three quarters after Revere opened the game with a time consuming 15-play drive that ultimately netted it zero points.
"I have to say that (Beverly coach) Dan Bauer and those kids are a class act," said Revere coach Lou Cicatelli. "We drove down (inside the Beverly 10-yard line) in the first quarter, then dropped a pass in the end zone. They just took over after that."
During the postgame handshakes, Cicatelli made it a point to pull aside Beverly running backs Greg Pierce (5 carries for 31 yards and a 57-yard punt return to set up a touchdown) and Bailey to compliment them.
"I said to Pierce, 'What year are you in?'" said Cicatelli. "He told me he was a junior and I thought, oh, man, we have to put up with him for another year."
The Revere coach was effusive in lauding Bailey, who had touchdown runs of 34, 49 and 42 yards. Bailey now has 759 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns despite missing one-and-a-half games with his ankle injury.
"Pat is Pat," said Cicatelli. "He's unbelievable. We did a good job of containing him in the first quarter, but then they had a fourth-and-1 (in the second quarter) and he busts one (for a 34-yard touchdown and a 6-0 lead)."
Revere still felt like it was in the game when it was 10-0 at halftime. However, the Panthers, who intercepted Revere quarterback Steve Ennamorati (1-for-8 passing for 20 yards) twice and recovered a fumble, basically delivered the win in the third quarter. That's when the offensive line created gaping holes for Bailey, who had scoring runs of 49 and 42 yards on consecutive possessions, pushing Beverly's lead to 24-0.
"Pat wanted to play," said Bauer. "I don't think he liked being on the sidelines last week."
Bailey didn't say that his ankle was 100 percent, but this time he got the green light to play from the coaching staff. He seemed as quick and as shifty as ever.
"It's my senior year and I'd like to play as much as possible," said Bailey, who essentially accumulated all of his yardage in the second and third quarters. "I think the difference (in the middle periods) was that we went outside, where the was some traction. The line did a great job of knocking down their guys."
Revere's best threat was 5-foot-8, 165-pound sophomore Matt Gasparini, who took a pounding from Beverly's interior line but battled his way to 63 yards on 17 carries. But the Patriots were blanked until late in the game, when Ennamorati scored on a 27-yard run against Beverly's reserves.
Beverly travels to Saugus next Saturday. Not that they want to get ahead of themselves, but the Panthers realize that they could win eight or nine games.
"We're six games into our season and we've already won as many games (5) as last season," said J. Michael Nardella, who played his usual stellar game at linebacker. "That's great, but we really have to stay focused."
