Girls Soccer Upsets Top-Ranked Rivals

October 8, 2025
• Needham girls soccer improved to 7-2-1 with their win over Wellesley. 

Needham girls soccer jumped to No. 4 in the latest MIAA Division 1 power rankings, and on Tuesday, Oct. 7, the Rockets showed why. They took down defending state champion and top-ranked Wellesley, 4-1, at Cricket Field in a physical match.

Wellesley entered the game averaging 2.8 goals per game, but Needham’s defense and freshman goalie Maggie Peterson kept the Raiders from scoring. Wellesley’s lone goal came on an own goal by the Rockets.

Needham started off hot, putting two shots on goal in the first five minutes, and broke through just over six minutes in with a breakaway goal from Michelle Faynstein, her seventh of the season.

Wellesley evened the score at one not long after, on the previously mentioned own goal. The Raiders were pressing through the Needham back line when Maeve Newman tried to pass back to Peterson in net, but the ball hit her foot wrong and went up and over Peterson into the goal.

Newman redeemed herself six minutes later when Wellesley’s Emily Burnham had a scoring opportunity. Burnham worked past Peterson and took a shot on the open net, but Newman cleared it off the goal line at the last second to keep the game tied.

With just under 11 minutes left in the half, Izzy Marino put a shot on Raider goalie Cam Walsh, who made the save but couldn’t control the rebound, allowing Cate Goodband to score and put Needham back up by one. The Rockets added another goal before halftime, this time Marino got her shot past Walsh off an assist from Sydney Kalaw.

The Rockets dominated the half, putting eight of their nine shots on goal and holding Wellesley to just one shot.

The Raiders came out firing in the second half, forcing Peterson to make a few saves before Needham added its fourth goal of the game. With under three minutes to play, Marino scored her second goal of the game, and fifth of the season, with some nice footwork and beautiful placement to get it past Walsh.

Needham was extremely accurate throughout the game, with 80% of their shots going on goal compared to Wellesley’s 36%.

With the win, the Rockets improve to 7-2-1 on the season, but they will have another tough test on Thursday, Oct. 9, when they host No.3 Natick.

Mike Levin has the highlights from this game in the video box below:

The highlights above ran as part of the Needham Channel News, a weekly newscast airing on The Needham Channel every Thursday at 7:30pm. The Needham Channel News can be found on the Community Channel: Comcast 9, Astound 15 and Verizon 29. Most Thursdays it also can be viewed on our HD Channel on Verizon 2129, Astound 613 and streaming on this site.