Rockets Review: Fall Season Recap, Globe Recognition, Strong Start to Winter

Needham HS Fall Athlete & Coach Recognition / Strong Start to the Winter Season for Rockets

ROCKETS FALL SEASON RECAP

On Sunday (12/9), the Boston Globe published its seasonal All-Scholastic Teams, marking the top HS performers in EMASS, which included five NHS athletes and one coach.

On the teams for the Rockets are:

• Boys Soccer Head Coach Don Brock: Division I Coach of the Year
• Boys Soccer Senior Mac Steeves: Division I Player of the Year
• Girls Soccer Senior Alyssa Raskind: All-Scholastic
• Golf Junior Jake Shuman: Division I Player of the Year
• Football Junior Mike Panepinto: All-Scholastic
• Girls Cross Country Freshman Margie Cullen: All-Scholastic          

The NHS Boys Soccer Team (DI State Champion and Globe #1 Final Ranking) was also featured as the lead story for the Fall All-Scholastic Section and complete details can be found at www.boston.com/sports/schools/allscholastics/2012/fall.

After an extremely strong fall season, the final tallies are in, with the Rockets reaching and earning the following:

A combined record of 93-27-9 (Most Wins, 2nd Most Total Competitions in Massachusetts!) www.boston.com/partners/globesports/schools/201213/standings/globescholastic.html

• District C & Girls Cross Country Sportsmanship Awards
• 5 BSC League Titles (Girls XC, Football, Golf, Boys Soccer, Girls Soccer)
• 1 DI Team State Championship: Boys Soccer
• 1 DI Individual State & Section Champion: Jake Shuman (Golf)
• 1 Section Runner-Up: Girls Cross Country
• BSC Fall: Boys All-Sport Award Winner & Girls All-Sport Runner-Up
• 39 BSC All-Conference & Honorable Mention Selections
• 3 BSC MVPs: Mac Steeves (B Soccer), Alyssa Raskind (G Soccer), Caroline Turner (G XC)
• 5 Boston Globe All-Scholastic Athletes, including 2 Athletes-of-the-Year (above)
• 1 Boston Globe Coach-of-the-Year: Don Brock
• 5 Boston Herald All-Scholastic Athletes
• 2 All New England Players (Steeves & Raskind)
• 1 All-American (Steeves)
  
  

WINTER SPORTS START STRONG

Continuing right where the fall teams left off, two NHS winter teams got off to strong starts on Saturday.  In the night cap, the Boys Basketball Team entered into their season opener at the Hoop Mountain Scholar Roundball Classic at Babson College against a tough opponent in 2011 EMASS Champions Brighton HS.  Starting off slow, the Rockets got down early, but then built up a small lead behind the sharp shooting of Senior Captain Connor McLeod, only to go into half down 5 to a very athletic and physical Bengals squad.  Trailing by as many as 9 points for a good portion of the 2nd half, Needham fought back to keep the game close, eventually pulling the score even in the 4th quarter.  After giving up a hoop with less than a minute to go, the Rockets held a slim 1 point lead.  Brighton, needing to foul several times to enter into the Bonus situation, finally sent Junior Captain Ryan Charter to the free-throw line with 9.9 seconds to play.  Charter calmly sank both for the 3 point advantage and Needham held on the defensive end for an impressive, season-opening 63-60 win.  Next up for the Rockets will be a tough BSC Carey Division road test, as they will travel to Brookline to take on the Warriors on Friday night (12/14) at 6:30pm.

Needham HS Wrestling also opened its season on Saturday (12/8) with a home quad-meet against non-league opponents Belmont, Boston Latin and Nashoba Regional, going 2-1 on the day.
 

Details from Saturday provided by Friends of Needham Wrestling: The Rocket Wrestlers downed Belmont, 51-18. Led by Senior Captains Mark Carroll and Mikhail Khibkin, Needham notched 7 pins against the Marauders and one victory by decision.  Freshman Lucas Goldman recorded his first career win with a second period fall. Seniors Brett Cohen, Islam Baiev and Tak Hirayama, and Junior Ben Glickman joined the Captains with early pins.  While Zach Goldman outlasted a Belmont Captain for a 6-4 win.

In the second round of the Quad Meet, Needham faced Boston Latin. Latin, returning big numbers from a state qualifying team, posed a big challenge NHS wrestling.  Stepping up for  the Rockets with pins were: Carroll, Khibkin, Baiev and Hirayama. While Zach Goldman and Brett Cohen earned hard-fought decision victories.  Giving up some forfeit points, the Rockets headed into the last few matches down and needing to win two of three.  Sophomore Dan Goldstein performed exceptionally well, pinning a tough Wolfpack wrestler after wearing him down for two periods.   With the meet on the line, Lucas Goldman faced returning Boston Latin letterman to give NHS wrestling a 42-35 victory over their sectional rival.

Closing out the day, the Rockets faced a strong Nashoba team that fielded 6 returning state qualifiers.  Again Khibkin's match ended early with a technical fall, 22-6 over his opponent. Baiev and Glickman also pinned for the Rockets. Carroll, wrestling up in weight class, went against a returning All-State qualifier and reversed him late in the match for a thrilling 7-6 decision.  After exchanging forfeits, Needham was on the losing end of several hard-fought matches and eventually fell, 42-32.  "We knew it was going to be a good match coming in here," Said Nashoba Coach Pete Connery, "It would be a different match in a few weeks when holes in the line-up are filled for both us."
The Rockets will look to fill those holes and maintain its Top 16 ranking in the state, as they head into their first BSC league meet with Dedham on Tuesday (12/11) at 4pm at home.

Please see below the full slate of action for all NHS teams through December 16th and check http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/athletics for Rockets Athletic news, updates, forms, links, and complete team schedules.  Needham HS Athletics is also now on Twitter!  Follow us @NHSRockets.

NEEDHAM ROCKETS ATHLETIC EVENTS: HOME & AWAY 12/10-12/16

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