By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Staff
Last Friday, the Rockets’ (0–4) football game against the Milton Wildcats (3–1) had a good crowd, with fans lining the hill for the second home game of the season.
Despite Milton’s 31–0 lead at the end of the first half, Needham fans kept their spirits up for the big night. The pep band played throughout the night and both Rockets’ cheer and dance performed at half time. Since it was also Staff Appreciation Night, NHS staff were invited down onto the field during half time where NHS math teacher Nicholas Mount was chosen to attempt to kick a field goal.
“I was the only one that signed up, they said there was going to be a raffle, and I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll do it,’” explained Mount. Although he was not successful, Mount said: “I was excited and nervous, but I just wanted to do it and just show my students like, it is what it is, do your best, you know?”
At the conclusion of halftime, faculty joined cheer and dance to form the tunnel for the football team to run through as they retook the field for the third quarter.
At about the 50-yard line with just under three and a half minutes remaining in the third quarter, quarterback Jack Ringer received the snap and made a pass to wide receiver Jayden Greenfield, who made the catch at the 20-yard line as he ran up the right sideline. Greenfield outran the Wildcat chasing him and scored the Rockets’ only touchdown of the game.
Junior Zach Kravetz’s successful point-after brought the score to 38–7 while kids behind the goal post scrambled to be the one to catch the kick.
In the fourth quarter, Milton’s quarterback threw a pass to a Wildcat in the endzone but coverage by defensive back Schandler Appolon resulted in an incomplete pass.
After the 38–7 loss, Head Coach Doug Kopcso said:
“I think there are still some things that we need to clean up a lot. But there are certain things like basics, like substitution issues, … [things] that the kids are getting a lot better at, I think we’ve done a better job at trying to structure certain things from the coaching standpoint, getting a lot of good ideas from our coaching staff to try to be a little more efficient with how we’re using our time, being a little better about how we’re utilizing our players, and our players are going out there and working as hard as they can, we just need to make sure that we trust each other, and do our job and we’ll be okay.”
“I think, again, like, the D-line stepped up, played really tough, you know, we’ve had a mixture of several different players at this point, and so I think that’s kind of tough to build chemistry and camaraderie, and they’ve just kept working, and I thought they did a great job—I thought there were a few times when the offensive line really held up well in terms of pass protection, and, you know, Jayden [Greenfield] did a great job of stepping up and making a lot of plays for us today, so I was really appreciative of his work and the way that he tried to lead us out there.”
“I would just say thank you to everyone who came out and packed the hill, it can be hard on a Friday night to make this the main event, and I think this town, looking over at all the kids still here, as the night is waning, still playing, still enjoying it, still coming out supporting their home team, it’s one of the proudest moments I have is looking out and seeing these young kids out here working and the parents up on the hill supporting their kids, so, yeah, I appreciate them packing the hill.”
Their next home game will be on Friday, October 23rd against Weymouth at 6:30. They will also be hosting Wellesley for the annual Thanksgiving Day game at 10:00am on Memorial Field. Last season, the Rockets lost to Weymouth 22–17 and were defeated by the Raiders during last year’s Thanksgiving game after winning in 2023 and 2024.
Rockets’ schedules can be found online at: arbiterlive.com.
