Rockets' First Football Scrimmage a Success

The Rockets held their first scrimmage of the year Saturday morning against Newton South. The game consisted of four offensive drives of ten plays for each team, with the seniors starting the first two sequences, the juniors the third, and the sophomores the fourth.

Needham's top two QBs were both sidelined due to injuries, giving third string junior Dan Pierce the start. Pierce completed two of his three passes and added a 15 yard run. Junior running back Mike Vespa led the ground attack, rushing the ball nine times. He ran for over 80 yards and was on his way to an additional 80 -ard touchdown run before the coaches whistled it dead.

Vespa was just one of many Rockets who ran the ball well. Twelve different players got touches from the backfield an offense that consisted of a 34-6 run/pass ratio. The offense managed three red-zone trips in which they hit two out of three field goals.

The defense held Newton South in check all morning and allowed just one field goal on a ball placed an additional 20 yards forward for that purpose. They sacked the quarterback twice, had an interception, and forced and recovered a fumble. A new defensive scheme was put in place this year for an entirely new defense, and head coach Dave Duffy said they played better than he expected.

"They made a couple of mistakes but not as many as I thought they would," said Duffy. "It's a new defense and the kids are picking it up well."

In fact, this is essentially an entirely new team overall for Duffy as only three starters are returning, one of whom is injured starting quarterback Kevin Brennan.

"We actually only had two guys returning from last year who played today," said Duffy. "We have a long way to go and a short time to get there, so we're going to keep working hard and do the best we can."

The Rockets continue practices all next week in preperation for their season-opening crash at Milton on September 11th.