Late Newton North Surge Downs Needham Football

October 9, 2025
• Needham is still searching for its first win of the year after a tough road loss to the Tigers.

After dropping each of their first four games of the 2025 season, Needham football was hoping to pick up their first win on Thursday night at Newton North.  Despite taking its first lead of the season and leading most of the game, the Rockets couldn’t hold it, falling 12-7 on a Thursday night on the road.

The Rockets entered this game struggling on offense, averaging 141 total yards a game, with 565 total in their losses to Milton, Natick, Lincoln-Subury and Walpole. The rushing game has been particularly rough, averaging 35 yards a game, and only 141 total rushing yards this season.

But that changed against Newton North, as Needham had 175 yards on the ground, more than doubling their rushing total for the season, now at 316. But they struggled to get the passing game going, with Quarterback Tyler Langford only completing eight of 25 passes for 46 yards and one touchdown, as well as an interception at the end that sealed it for the Tigers.

The Rockets opened the game with an impressive 20 play, 71-yard drive, but their struggles in the red zone continued, as they turned it over on downs at the Newton North 4. The Tigers were barely able to put anything together on offense in the first half, so Needham had chances, but only took advantage once, in the second quarter, when they had a short field starting at the Tiger 37 and scoring on a six yard touchdown pass from Langford to James Lalonde.

With a 7-0 lead at halftime and heading to the third quarter, Needham turned it over on downs again and the Tigers offense started to get going, finishing the quarter with a five-yard TD pass from Freddy Torcasio to Jacob Goodwin. The Rockets couldn’t add to their lead and Newton North would march down the field and scored on a one-yard touchdown run by Dylan Leone with 47 seconds left in the game.

Needham was unable to move the ball down field to answer, thus falling to their Bay State Conference rivals and dropping their record this season to 0-5.

Caden McNamee has been a bright spot for Needham’s offense, as he’s caught 19 receptions for 192 yards and three touchdowns. Parker Amodeo had a big week against Walpole, with two sacks and a fumble recovery.

Langford came into Thursday night’s game completing 46 of his 97 passes, good for completion percentage of 47%. He’s also thrown three TD passes, all to McNamee, while also rushing for one and throwing six interceptions.

Up next, the Rockets will host Braintree (1-4) on Friday, Oct. 17 at 6:30 p.m. Newton North (3-3) will host Needham’s Thanksgiving rival, Wellesley (2-3), next Friday night at 6 p.m.

Mike Levin has the highlights from this game in this week’s Rockets Roundup below: