Rockets Romp to Another Win, Blast Tigers

September 27, 2024

• The Rockets kept their perfect record intact against Bay State Conference foe Newton North.

In the first three weeks of the 2024 regular season, Needham rolled to big wins over previously tough teams in Milton, Natick and Lincoln-Sudbury. With Newton North coming in at 0-3 and barely registering any offense, would this one change the narrative at all? Not so much as despite an early mistake, the Rockets came home and pounded the Tigers 43-6.

This was Needham’s first home game since week 1 against Milton, though you wouldn’t know it based on the two road wins at Natick and L-S. Needham made a mistake on their first offensive play, fumbling the ball in their own territory. But NN, with just six points scored in their first three games, couldn’t get any offense going.

So, the Rockets put together a nice drive that included a 28 yard run by Joe Kajunski and passes by Griffin Carr of 18 yards to Aidan Williams and 21 yards to Caden McNamee. Stephen Rocamboli, who fumbled the ball on the first possession, capped off the drive with a six yard touchdown run.

On the second play of the next Tiger drive, Williams would recover a fumble at the Newton North 27 yard line. Needham took a 7-0 lead to the second quarter, when Antoine Lewis scored on a one yard run. The extra point was no good, so Needham’s lead was 13-0.

Williams had his biggest offensive play of the game on the next Needham drive, as he rumbled 41 yards to the hole and with 5:30 left in the half it was 20-0 Needham. But that wasn’t all, as the Rockets came back again and with 1:20 to go in the 2nd, Griffin Carr connected with Andrew Concannon for an eight yard TD strike.

Up 27-0 at the break, the Rockets also dwarfed Newton North in total offensive yards, 254-46. The third quarter was much of the same, as Williams picked off Tiger QB Freddy Torcasio at the NN 21. Lewis had a chance to add to the lead, but fumbled the ball at the two yard line.

Luckily, the vaunted Rockets defense stepped up big again, as they registered a safety for the second straight year, when they swarmed a Tiger receiver who made a catch in the end zone. Needham had a safety in their 10-9 loss at Milton last season. On the following kickoff, Rocamboli went the distance, scoring his second TD of the game.

Newton North would get on the board before the end of the third quarter, with a 61 yard pass leading to an 8 yard TD pass. But Owen Gonzalez-Ellis finished off the scoring in the 4th quarter, on a two yard run for the Rockets.

On the game, Needham had 330 yards of total offense, 232 on the ground. Lewis was 8-for-86 with his TD, Rocamboli was 8-for-51 along his two scores, while Williams added 3-for-53 and a TD, along with his 18 yard reception, fumble recovery and an interception as well on defense. Newton North was held to just 43 yards on the ground, though they did pick up 104 yards through the air, giving them a total of 147 offensive yards. But they also lost 23 on a pair of sacks by the Rockets, one by McNamee and the other by the duo of Will McDonald and Ben Schreiber.

The Rockets will now hit the road again, with two away games (October 4th at Walpole and October 18th at Braintree) bookending a bye week before coming back home to host Weymouth on October 25th.

Here are the highlights from the game, in our “Rockets Roundup,” with Mike Levin and Ben Gilman:

The Needham Channel is your home for Needham Rockets Varsity Football and you can watch every game, home and away on The Needham Channel’s HD, Community and Education Channels, as well as streaming on needhamchannel.org and our Roku app. The last regular season home game, October 25th against Weymouth will be carried live on-air and online, with the road games to be recorded and debuting Monday nights. We will also have game stories from every game here on Needham Local, as well as highlights posted to our Needham Channel YouTube page on Mondays. You can also follow live game action via our X page at: x.com/tnc_sports.

TNC is looking for volunteers who want to help out as crew and announcers for all of our game broadcasts this fall. If you love sports or know someone on a team, send an email to TNC Programming Manager Mike Levin at: mlevin@needhamchannel.org.

Be sure to check out the TNC Instagram page, for all of our content from the 2024 Needham Football season, as well as other Fall Sports at: instagram.com/theneedhamchannel.