Needham Football Keeps Rolling With Win at Braintree

October 18, 2024

• The Rockets took their perfect 5-0 record to face the Wamps, who were perfect at home.

Needham Football has been rolling the last two years, losing just one regular season game. Two weeks ago, the Rockets shook off some rust at Walpole, a place they hadn’t won a game at in 18 years. On Friday night, the Rockets visited Braintree, where they haven’t won in five years, winning 31-9 at Alumni Stadium.

The last time Needham won at Braintree was October 4, 2019, when Needham beat the Wamps 14-6. Two years ago the Rockets were shut out by Braintree 14-0. While the first half of this game had little offense, the Rockets ended up rolling by the third quarter.

It started off with a fast moving defensive struggle, with no scoring to be seen in the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Rockets were driving, but fumbled the ball away. The Wamps would then get the scoring started with a 32 yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

But Stephen Rocamboli, who lost the fumble, would return the ensuing kickoff to the Needham 44 yard line. QB Griffin Carr then completed a 38 yard pass to Ben Schreiber to set up a four yard touchdown run by Aidan Williams, giving the Rockets their first lead of the game.

A crazy sequence ended the half, as Weymouth was in field goal range, threw and incomplete pass and head coach Lee Carlson was ejected by the referees for arguing that the Rockets should have been called on a roughing the passer penalty on his QB, Garoid Stones. Instead, Braintree was moved back 15 yards, Majors was gone and their field goal attempt, which would have pulled the Wamps within one point, fell just short.

Leading 7-3 at halftime, Williams got the Rockets lifted off in the third quarter, with a 20 yard run, followed by a 29 yard TD run. A 14-3 lead wasn’t very safe though, as Braintree came right back with a 59 yard completion from Stones to Sean Canavan getting to the one yard line, then Nick Saunders taking it in for a TD and all of a sudden it was a 14-9 game.

The Wamps couldn’t follow up though, as Williams broke a huge 53 yard run, then cashed in with his third TD run, from 10 yards out. Then Schreiber picked off a pass at the Braintree 27 yard line, so heading into the 4th quarter it was 21-9 Rockets and Needham had the ball.

Alex Rufo hit a 34 yard field goal for Needham, then Williams capped off another drive with a touchdown, this time from a yard out. For the game, Williams rushed 19 times for 183 yards and all four Needham TDs. The Rockets had 220 rushing yards as a team, with Carr completing 6-of-11 passes for 87 yards, giving Needham 307 total offensive yards.

The Rockets now set their sights on the biggest Bay State Conference showdown of the season, next Friday night, October 25th, as Weymouth comes to Needham for Senior Night, the last regular season home game in 2024 for the Rockets. The Wildcats were 5-0 before their game with Framingham Friday night and won 42-6, so they are also 6-0, heading into this tremendous late season matchup with the Rockets at Memorial Field.

Here are some of the highlights from our broadcast, via our Instagram Feed:

 

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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.

As of October 2024, The Needham Channel is looking to hire a new full-time Sports Producer. We are looking for someone who is passionate about sports at all levels and is hoping to find their first opportunity in the business. You can see the full listing here: needhamlocal.org/now-hiring/

TNC is also looking for volunteers who want to help out as crew and announcers for all of our game broadcasts this school year. 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 Fall Sports Season at: instagram.com/theneedhamchannel.