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Needham’s seventh grade team came into its first Bay State Conference playoff with lots of promise, but unfortunately found itself outmatched by a big and physical team from Norwood, falling 42-7 on Saturday to conclude their season. Needham’s defense stopped the Norwood rushing attack on its first three plays but then gave up a long touchdown run on fourth down, and the rout was on. Then, when star running back Marcus Fuentes went down with an injury, the Rockets simply did not have the firepower to keep up with the potent Norwood attack.
B-Squad showed a lot of heart and fought hard through adversity to the final whistle. Josh Melia, Colin Sullivan and Tyler Closuit showed some hard running between the tackles. Will Sullivan, on his first-ever carry, broke one loose for a 40-yard touchdown run. On defense, Owen Scholz, Noah Patti, Ben Chapman and Sean Skaritanov made big plays, even though they were significantly outsized.
As tough as the loss was, it can’t take away from the amazing season had by these seventh graders, a year which included big wins over Weymouth and Framingham. B-Squad also put up 40 points on an undefeated Milton team. When B-Squad faced must-win games to keep their playoff hopes alive, they came up with back-to-back hard fought wins over tough teams from Brockton and Wellesley. 2017 was the first time B-Squad had ever beaten their long time rivals from Wellesley, and this season marked Needham B-Squad’s first-ever berth in the Bay State Conference Championship game.
This team’s ceiling heading into next season is sky-high.
The seventh grade defensive line of Noah Patti (80), Owen Scholz (6), Josh Melia (38), George Darwin (37), Daniel Altshuler (24), Conor Finnegan (5) and Finn Leavitt (11).
