Needham Outlasts Framingham In Rain For First Win

October 30, 2025

• The Rockets closed out the regular season with their first victory of 2025. 

The 2025 season has been a polar opposite from the 2024 season for Needham Varsity Football, following up an undefeated run to the MIAA Division 1 Championship Game with zero wins heading into the regular season finale with Framingham on Thursday night. Although they still have at least one Non-Playoff game next week before heading to Wellesley on Thanksgiving, Thursday night’s game at Memorial Field was huge for the Rockets, as they broke through with a hard earned 15-11 win over the Flyers.

Framingham got the ball first and scored first, on a four yard touchdown run by Nick Duarte. The Junior is the Flyers featured back and carried most of the workload throughout this game. A two point conversion gave Framingham an 8-0 lead.

The Flyers held that lead until late in the first half, when Needham capped a ten play, 73 yard drive with an eight yard scramble by Senior Quarterback Tyler Langford with 21 seconds to play. The Rockets added a two point conversion of their own on a throw from Langford to Joey Saratella to tie the score at eight heading to halftime.

It stayed 8-8 until late in the fourth quarter, when Dylan Gold kicked a 25 yard field goal to put Framingham back on top, 11-8. But the Rockets responded, scoring on just two plays, first a 23 yard run by Saratella, followed by a 34 yarder by Owen Gonzalaz that put Needham on top. Colton Harjula then kicked an extra point and the Rockets took a four point lead.

The Flyers had one last drive to try and answer, but on 2nd and 15 with five seconds left, Parker Amodeo sacked QB James Garrity to seal the win for Needham, who improved to 1-7 on the season.

Framingham came into the regular season finale with a record of 4-2, having won four straight games, over Braintree, Newton North and Durfee before their latest win last Friday night over Brookline. They lost games to Wellesley and Milton to start the season and were #17 in the MIAA Division 1 Power Rankings heading into the game at Needham. Only the top 16 get into the playoffs, so this loss drops the Flyers to 4-3 and likely out of contention for the postseason.

MIAA Football Playoff Brackets and Non-Playoff matchups are set to be released on Sunday, November 2nd. Depending on where and when the Rockets play, The Needham Channel may still cover the Non-Playoffs, if there are no other Needham teams playing at the same time. You can check back at needhamlocal.org, needhamchannel.org and our social media pages for updates on which games we will be broadcasting.