Boys and Girls Soccer Open Up Postseason with Shut Out Wins
November 5, 2023
• Needham Boys Soccer secured the win over Lexington, followed up by the Girls team topping Woburn in the Division One Round of 32.
Boys and Girls Soccer were the last teams to play their opening round of the tournament, hoping to join Girls Volleyball, Field Hockey and Football who all moved on to the next round. Boys Soccer, ranked #2 overall, came alive in the 2nd half to defeat #31 Lexington, 2-0. Girls Soccer, ranked #12 took the field right after, coming out strong against #21 Woburn, advancing past them with the 3-0 win.
Boys Soccer, who are looking to make a second straight run to the State Championship, struggled to put the ball in the net in the first half against a physical Minutemen team, despite 3 corner attempts and 5 shots on goal compared to Lexington’s 2 corners and 2 shots on goal. However the Rockets stayed aggressive and eventually sophomore, Mateo Nerreti would put the Rockets on the board with just over 21 minutes to play in the half. Needham would apply pressure to the Lexington goalie, Julian del Angel-Flores all night, with with 10:27 to play, Zander Laidlaw would strip Angel Flores near his own goal, setting up Harry Clapham for an easy goal to push the lead to 2-0.
The Rockets would finish the evening with 9 shots on goal and 6 corner attempts. The boys will host #15 Boston College High School in the Round of 16, Wednesday, November 8th at Memorial Field. Kick off set for 6:00 pm.
Girls Soccer would take the field for the second half of the doubleheader, and unlike the boys they would capitalize early. Hannah Levine would find teammate Callie McCarthy on a run up the center, and McCarthy would finish, putting the Rockets ahead 1-0 within the first 10 minutes. They would carry the 1-0 lead into the half despite having a huge advantage with 8 corner attempts, compared to the Tanner’s 2.
In the 2nd half, Needham would eventually cash in on corners. With 16 minutes to go, McCarthy puts up a high corner kick, bouncing off a few players and eventually into the net, extending their lead 2-0, and it wouldn’t stop there. A few minutes later McCarthy puts another ball in off a corner, it catches the head of Hannah Levine, and tapped in for the goal by Gianna Moreschi.
With the 3-0 win, the Girls advance to the Round of 16, where they will travel to Brookline to take on the Warriors, time and date TBA.
Here are some of the highlights from the night, we will have a full highlight recapping the slate of games from the first round on Monday, November 6th
