Needham Rockets Past Weymouth To Stay Perfect

October 25, 2024

• Needham won a surprisingly one sided matchup with the Wildcats.

It was a matchup with weeks of anticipation, but in the end, Needham Football dominated Weymouth in this Bay State Conference battle of 6-0 teams, winning 21-3 on Senior Night at Memorial Field. The Rockets fell just one yard short of rushing for 200 yards, but with 199 on the ground and another 157 through the air, they tallied a total of 356 offensive yards.

Weymouth’s biggest win coming in was against Milton, the first time in 12 years Weymouth won that particular Battle of the Wildcats. Needham’s was October 4th, when they won at Walpole for the first time in 18 years, though their 20-7 win at Natick on September 13th was also their first at Natick in ten years.

But as has been the case at times this year with the Rockets, they struggled offensively out of the gate. Joe Kajunski fumbled at the Needham 47 in the first quarter. Luckily, the defense came up big, stopping Weymouth on a 4th and 2 from the 29.

Needham finally got a big play when they ran an option pass with Brandt Bickford, who threw it deep to Caden McNamee, who caught the ball for a 48 yard completion. Weymouth’s defense held and on a 4th down from the 15, Needham passed up an opportunity at a field goal, then turned it over on downs when Griffin Carr’s pass was incomplete.

It was a 0-0 game heading into the 2nd Quarter and the Wildcats would get a huge completion of their own, but the Rockets forced a fumble, with Nick Sewall recovering at the Needham 23. Late in the half, Needham drove deep into the Weymouth red zone and finally broke the scoreless tie, as Carr found Ben Schreiber for a five yard touchdown strike.

The Rockets took that 7-0 lead to halftime, with 200 total yards of offense at that point. Aidan Williams had 16 rushes for 64 yards and the Rockets totaled 108 yards on the ground. But they also were called on five penalties for 40 yards.

However, Needham minimized those mistakes, getting just one for yellow flag in the second half. Weymouth got on the board a few minutes into the 3rd Quarter, with a field goal, but the Rockets came right back, as Carr found Bickford for a 25 yard touchdown pass as Needham took control, up 14-3 after three quarters.

In the 4th Quarter, with Needham looking to put the game out of reach, Williams had rushes of 28 and 9 yards, setting up Matt Ferriera for a one yard TD run. Williams finished the game with 29 rushes for 142 yards. Carr was 9-10 through the air, with 109 of the team’s 157 passing yards.

The Rockets finish the regular season on Friday, November 1st, at Framingham, while Weymouth will head to Needham’s Thanksgiving rival, Wellesley. Playoff Brackets are scheduled to be released on Sunday, November 3rd, with the first round of the postseason starting the following Friday, November 8th.

Click the video box below to check out this week’s edition of “Rockets Roundup,” as Mike Levin and Ben Gilman have highlights from Needham’s win over Weymouth:

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 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.