By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Needham High School lacrosse enters the 2022 season with extremely high expectations, and for good reason. The reigning Bay State Conference Tournament winners, the Rockets return a plethora of collegiate-bound talent, including one of the top goal-scorers in New England in Bryant-committed attack-man and senior captain Nick Pisano.
“A general expectation is definitely to win the Bay State again this year,” said Pisano when asked about his team’s general goals and expectations. “Also, another goal is to win our first five games against Lincoln-Sudbury, Hingham, Walpole, Braintree and Lexington. That way, we can go into the Players Cup on a hot streak.”
Also co-captaining the Rockets in 2022 are Bentley-committed defenseman Kyle Piersiak, Bentley-committed defenseman Griffin Colwell and attack-man Cam Hickey. Another key impact player returning for Needham is sophomore defenseman and LSM Jimmy Kenney, who’s highly regarded as one of the best 2024 prospects in the country. Pisano talked about what its like going up against such high-level guys like Piersiak, Colwell and Kenney every day in practice.
“I look at going against Jimmy, Griffin and Kyle as an advantage, because in my eyes, we have the best defense in the state,” said Pisano. “We return every single pole from last year and their chemistry is off the charts. We have some more guys who are under the radar, too, like Jack Curran and Chris Northrup. The in-house competition is unmatched at practice. We are looking to use that as an advantage when we go up against other really good teams this year that are deep defensively.”
Needham will be tested out of the gate as the Rockets open the 2022 season on the road against Lincoln-Sudbury on March 31 at 5 p.m.
For funny and incisive sports analysis as well as video highlights of games, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter and Instagram handles @flano0.
