Coach Savi Earns 200th Win, Dedham Tops Needham

The girl’s soccer coach for the last 15 years has groomed success relying on teamwork instead of individual play. And Wednesday night was another perfect example of that at for coach Don Savi and the Marauders.

Coach Savi earned his 200th victory at the helm in a rain-soaked 3-2 win over Needham, thanks in part to his daughter Jena, a senior, who netted all three assists on corners and free kicks.

"We have to do a better job on restarts,"said Savi, referring to his free kicks and corners. "Unfortunately, the last three years we got knocked out of the tournament on restarts, and we’ve made a point to work on them this year."

With the opening win against their Bay State rival, Dedham moves to 1-0 on the young season, and Needham falls to 0-1.

Dedham’s first goal was set up by Jenna Savi who placed a beautiful ball over the Needham goalie for senior Kelly Quinn, who headed it in the net to tie the game at 1-1 midway through the first half.

"We practice those pieces," said Jenna Savi after the win. "We didn’t get down on ourselves (following the 1-0 deficit), we just fought through."

Dedham added two more goals on corner kicks in the second half set up by Savi, with Meghan McFarland and Sarah Warjas tallying the goals.

"As long as there is people who want to finish there are going to be chances for them," said coach Savi.

McFarland’s goal came when the forward put home a loose ball in front of the net off a missed header that Needham goalie Ali Newhead had no chance on.

While the Warjas goal, which put Dedham up 3-1 early in the second half, came on another Savi corner kick, as Warjas was able to get just enough of her head on the ball to corral it in the net for the game winning goal.

"She serves the ball great," said coach Savi of his daughter.

Needham’s Kire Oherle added a second Rocket goal off a corner and almost added a third with a couple of minutes left in regulation.

"We hung in there in the end," said coach Savi.

The Rockets threatened late when a last-minute corner kick landed in front of Dedham goalkeeper Ellen Masalsky, who made a point-blank save from a 5-yard strike to preserve the win for the Marauders.

"They got some good players," said coach Savi. "They are going to be a good team, they’re young but they’re good."

Needham was without their head coach Carl Tarabelli, who was serving a five-game suspension for that occurred following a victory last fall. Kaitlin O'Malley replaced Tarabelli on the sidelines.

The Rockets jumped out to the early lead when Tory Waldstein finished off a Sammy Lerner shot that ricocheted off the post and went in to put the Rockets up 1-0 early.

"We should be better this year," said coach Savi."We just need to tighten things up on the defensive end."

With several players getting into the action, the coach's 200th win displayed the team-first strategy that got him so many victories in the first place.

"We have always been a team, and that’s very important," said coach Savi, "and that breeds more success."

Dedham Boys Hit Hard by Needham

Dedham’s Ioannis Siokis notched the first goal of the contest before Needham’s offense erupted for four goals in the first half, which gave the Rockets a commanding lead that was never relinquished.

Nolan Brady scored the team’s first goal of the season, which was followed up by Harry Swartz, Donald Silverman and Eric Udelson. In the second half, the Rockets piled on six more goals, three of which came off the foot of Mac Steeves. Swartz added two more goals during the final 40 minutes too, which also gave him a hat-trick.

Coach Paul Podolski seemed rather proud of his team’s effort, despite the grueling loss after the game.

"I thought early on we played pretty well [and] they exploited individual weaknesses that we had, [but] I thought collectively in the first half we did a nice job. We generated four-five pretty good scoring chances. In the second half, they beat us a lot one-on-one and I think their skill level is high," Podolski said.

Dedham fell to 1-0 on the season and Needham moved to 1-0. Dedham will face Wellesley on the road Friday.

-Matt Noonan

MacDonald Opens Field Hockey Season With Win

In her first game as the Dedham field hockey coach, Erin MacDonald guided the Marauders to a 3-2 win over Needham Wednesday. 

Senior Laura Tavalone scored the team's first goal on a pass from Paige Keefe. A minute later, sophomore Colleen Downing added the second goal, with an assist from Tavalone. Senior captain Tara Celata added the team's third goal. 

Jamie Carty made 14 saves in net for the 1-0 Marauders.