Girls Soccer Defeats Milton, Football Falls to St. John’s Prep
September 25, 2026
• Girls soccer bounced back after suffering their first loss of the season, while football fell to 0-3.
Needham girls soccer got back into the win column on Thursday, Sept. 24, with a 2-0 victory over Milton. The following night, football suffered a tough 45-6 loss to 2nd ranked St. John’s Prep at home.
Following a 3-0 loss to Wellesley on Sept. 17, girls soccer bounced back quickly against Milton. Just eight minutes into the first half, Viv Laporte scored her fifth goal of the season to give the Rockets a 1-0 lead.
Just four minutes later, the Rockets struck again. This time Cate Goodband scored her second goal of the year after the ball trickled through a few Wildcat defenders, leaving her open in front of the net.
Needham controlled possession for a majority of the first half, but Milton came out strong in the second.
Despite their push, the Rockets defense held steady and did not allow a goal for the third time this season. They have yet to concede a goal at home.
With the win, Needham improves to 4-1 and will travel to face Walpole on Tuesday, Sept. 29. They are currently ranked 11th in the Boston Globe Top 20 rankings.
Dealing with the elements of a brewing nor’easter on Sept. 25, football struggled against a talented St. John’s Prep team.
Needham’s opening drive lasted about four minutes before stalling on the Eagles 46 yard line. The Eagles took over on downs from there and slowly chipped away at the Rocket defense, who had two goal line stops, before Maxwell Parent scored on a one yard rush. St. John’s Prep converted a two point try to go up 8-0.
St. John’s Prep quarterback Chris Vargas, who is committed to play college football at Ohio State, connected with Riley Selvais for a big gain in the second quarter. That play set up a five yard rushing touchdown from Michael Salemi, and after another two point conversion, the Rockets found themselves down 16-0 with 8:49 remaining in the second quarter.
About two minutes later the Eagles had possession again, and Vargas threw a 54 yard touchdown pass to a wide open Selvais, to make it 23-0. St. John’s Prep added one more touchdown in the half, a nine yard pass from Vargas to Will Codreanu to take a commanding 31-0 lead.
Vargas was replaced by Michael Hamel in the second half, as the rain continued to fall at Memorial Field. The Eagles scored again at the 6:43 mark of the third quarter on a run from John Scally.
With a running clock in the fourth, Hamel connected on a long pass to Sal DeMartinis to put St. John’s Prep up 45-0. But, the Rockets kept fighting and moved the ball well with Liam West in at quarterback late in the game. West threw a touchdown pass to Edward Filip with time expiring to make it a final score of 45-6.
With the loss, the Rockets fall to 0-3 and will look for their first win of the season on Oct. 2 at Walpole.
Check out both girls soccer goals in the video box below:
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