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The Needham Junior Football teams hosted Milton for six games at Memorial Field. In the competitive brackets, Needham went 2-2 with the sixth and seventh grade teams notching victories, while the fifth and eighth grade squads lost close ones.
A Squad (Grade 8) – Milton 20, Needham 16 – The A squad dropped their second straight game (0-2) with a tough loss against visiting Milton 20-16. After going down 6-0 early, the Junior Rockets battled back with a touchdown run by Ryan Hurley, who then also tacked on the extra point as the team’s kicker, putting Needham up 8-6 at the half. Kyle Corbett led the receiving corps on Saturday night, but Ruben Melkonian's touchdown off a Milton second half kickoff was the clear highlight of the night.
First-year players Griffen Hession, Thomas Cardozo, Jason Silverman, Tyler Eng and Jessie Litchman added much needed depth to the Rocket defensive line, helping slowdown a powerful Milton running game.
Linebackers Aiden Gallagher, James O'Connor, PJ Corwin, Patrick Robock, and Peter Nowlan had their hands full defending short yard passes, but performed well all game long. Defensive Backs Tommy Fullbrook, Drew Desing, Julius Jordan-Sanchez and Jake Maio all worked hard to try and shut down Milton’s deep passing attack. Despite the hard work by the Rockets defensive unit, however, Milton prevailed with two late scores
B Squad (Grade 8) – Needham 30, Milton 6 – B squad rolled to a 30-6 victory (improving to 1-1) behind great offensive line blocking. Brady Ross, Thomas Hartley, Chris Closuit, Hanson Miller, Matt Filippine, Will Harris, Michael Geraghty, Aidan O'Brien, Gerald Perkins, Micah Taylor, Matt Ferrara, Jason Silver, Sam Billante, Peter Papakyrikos, Jack Snelling, Alex Mackay, Jimmy Meunier, and Mimi Belibasakis all worked hard in the trenches, pushing the Milton defensive line back all afternoon. The great blocking afforded Brendan Morley, Adrian Rufo, and Griffin Colwell opportunities to score, with four rushing touchdowns on the day.
C Squad (Grade 6) – Needham 20, Milton 12 – Defense was the name of the game as C Squad (1-1) pulled off an impressive victory over an offensively explosive Milton team. The defense shut out Milton in the first half behind a sack-happy defensive line featuring George Darwin, Conor Finnegan, Gerald Pendergast, Peter Greenes, Jonah Bloch, Finn Leavitt and Riley Bloch. While the defensive line was attacking the Milton quarterback, C-Squad’s linebackers and defensive backs played disciplined but aggressively, with big drive-halting tackles by Angela Demaio, Daniel Altshuler, Marcus Fuentes, Owen Scholz and Rafael Montero. However, the play of the day on defense was when Josh Melia jumped the snap on a third quarter Milton pass play, intercepting the ball and rumbling down to the 1 yard line to set up the winning score.
The offense, meanwhile, grounded out yards all day long with time-consuming drives that kept Milton’s offense off the field. Offensive linemen Warren Gillis, Colin Sullivan, Ronan Tennis, Cam Fox, Wyatt Fromm, Scott Palmatier, Ted Carter and Matthew Hebert controlled the line of scrimmage. This led to two touchdown runs by fullback Timmy Bruen and one by Montero. C-Squad’s kicker, Jake Sykes, was successful on his first ever PAT attempt.
D Squad (Grade 5) – Milton 6, Needham 0 – The D squad (0-2) played a very strong game on Saturday, but was unable to generate any points against a tough Milton defensive unit. Running backs Spencer Chapman, Jase Hannigan and Tyler Reif were able to have several nice runs behind strong blocking from PJ Hartley, Sharvel Bijumalia, James Young, and Andrew Spezzano.
George Addona led the defense with five tackles. The defensive line combined for a bunch of tackles and were led by defensive ends Josh Morant & Mike Hegarty. Defensive tackles Gabe McCarthy and Connor Dempsey did a great job of keeping the Milton offense on their toes, as well. Defensive back Spencer Chapman also had an interception, and although the team worked together and fought hard to the end, they were unable to move the ball across the goal line.
E1 Squad (Grade 4) * – The 4th grade Junior Rockets continued to execute their brand of aggressive, fast defensive play and powerful offensive attack against Milton. Nose tackle Alex Rutley forced two fumbles and recovered one to go along with 5 tackles for loss on the afternoon. Fellow defensive linemen Charlie Simeone, Sean Baker, Yan Shtein and Jack Barrett all had multiple tackles behind the line of scrimmage as well. Linebacker Ben Schreiber and safety Denis O’Donovan combined for a touchdown saving tackle along the sidelines after a Milton running back broke through the initial defensive push and looked to be well on his way to the end zone.
Against a physically larger Milton team, offensive linemen Dom Hamwey, Adler Kukoleca, and Andrew Carter held their ground and created space for several long runs by running back Travis O’Brien. O’Brien found the end zone on a power sweep in the first half behind the blocking of tight end Matt Rutter, full back Alex Rufo and wide out Will Connelly. Also having success on the ground was the speedy half back Nolan Joyce, who scampered around the right end for a solid gain on his first carry of the season.
E2 Squad (Grades 2-3)* - E2/3 had another successful game behind the efforts of Collin Corbett, Grant Margulies, Aiden Mack, Brady Bloch, and Sam Gage, as E2/3 Squad scored their first two touchdowns of the season against Milton. Running backs Hanna McIntyre and Lucas Speratti were able to get some good runs as well.
Defensively, Kenneth Ronchinsky did a great job holding his own against a sizable opponent. Jake Heckman delivered a big hit preventing a gain on an outside sweep. Kiernan Collins played both sides of the ball showing true Rocket spirit and doing whatever job needs to be done.
Note that scores are not kept for the E1 and E2 instructional levels of AYF Football.
All squads travel to Weymouth in week three.
