Field Hockey Gets Taylor 1st Win, Girls Soccer Ties Walpole

September 19, 2025

• Needham Field Hockey had been winless in their previous five, Girls Soccer had not only won their first three, but had yet to yield a goal.

The Needham Varsity Field Hockey team picked up their first victory under new Head Coach Tessa Taylor on Wednesday, September 17th, blasting Weymouth 9-0. One day prior, Girls Soccer had their three game win streak snapped by rival Walpole, as the Timberwolves drew a 1-1 tie with the Rockets.

On Tuesday, Girls Soccer welcomed a Timberwolves team that had upset the Rockets on their senior night last October, but had failed to win a game so far in 2025. Walpole was able to score first, however, early in the game, forcing Needham on their heels the rest of the game at Cricket Field.

It was the only official shot on goal for the T’Wolves in the first half, as the Rockets outshot them 4-1, as well as took more corner kicks (4-1). It was even more one sided in the second half, with Needham getting a 4-2 advantage on corners and a 9-4 shooting edge.

Needham was finally able to score an equalizer about midway through the second half, when Senior Michelle Faynstein found the back of the net off a pass from Izzy Marino. The goal was Faynstein’s fifth of the season. On the game, the Rockets outshot Walpole 13-5 and took seven corners to Walpole’s three.

Walpole’s goal was the first surrendered this season by the Rockets, who then gave up another on Thursday, September 18th at Milton. For the first time this year, Needham failed to score and were dealt their first loss of the season. (3-1-1.)

On Wednesday, Field Hockey did something they had yet to do this fall under Taylor’s guidance, which was get their offense going early, as well as control the action from start to finish. Although they’d given up more goals than the Rockets, the Wildcats came into the game having just won their first game, 3-1 at Brockton on Friday, September 12th.

Rockets Senior Captain Molly Pearlman scored her first goal of the season off a corner at Brock Field, giving Needham a 1-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Pearlman would get on the board again in the second after a long shot found its way in to give Needham a 2-0 advantage.

Katheryn Brinkhaus, a First-Year player for the Rockets, would score on back to back goals, the first of her high school career. The second of those goals was assisted by another Rockets Senior Captain, Megan Sgroi.

Sophomore Sydney Leibman added another before the end of the 2nd quarter, giving Needham a comfortable 5-0 lead at the half. Less than two minutes into the 3rd, another Sophomore, Emma Dammann, picked up her first goal of the season.

Pearlman then scored again to give her a hat trick, then Dammann got another to make it 8-0 Needham at the end of the 3rd. Sgroi would be the lone goal scorer in the 4th quarter, her second goal of the year. With the win, Needham improved to 1-3-2 on the season, with their next game Friday, September 19th at 4:15pm at home against Lincoln-Sudbury.

You can check out the highlights from Needham Girls Soccer vs. Walpole and Field Hockey vs. Weymouth with Mike Levin from this week’s Needham Channel News:

The Needham Channel is your home for Needham Rockets Varsity Sports and you can watch every game we cover streaming on needhamchannel.org and our Roku app. We will also have stories from some of those games on Needham Local, as well as highlights posted to our Needham Channel YouTube page. You can also follow live game action via our X page at: x.com/tnc_sports.

TNC is also looking for volunteers who want to help out as crew and announcers for all of our game broadcasts this school year. If you love sports or know someone on a team, send an email to TNC Programming Manager Mike Levin at: mlevin@needhamchannel.org.

Be sure to check out the TNC Instagram page, for all of our content from the 2025 Needham Fall Sports Season at: instagram.com/theneedhamchannel.