Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Boy’s Soccer Remains Undefeated After Win Over Stoneham

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Watertown Boys Soccer’s third home game of the early season, and first at Victory Field, was a 5-0 win versus Stoneham Wednesday under the lights.T wo first-half goals by senior midfielder Gavin Foley was topped by fellow senior midfielder Aidan Anker, who scored three goals in the second half. Junior goalkeeper Declan Chapron pitched his second shutout of the week, following up a 1-0 shutout over Woburn on Monday. All coaches dream of teaching and coaching players who are motivated and hardworking and simply good people. Well, Coach Frank Cacia is a very lucky guy because he has that in the 2025 edition of Boys Soccer. That’s not to say Coach Cacia hasn’t had great kids in his tenure. It’s simply to point how hard this group worked in the off-season, and how determined they are to turn that hard work into a successful season, a season that they want to include a tournament bid and a home playoff game. Seven games does not make a season, but this team is on the right path towards those goals.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Field Hockey Beats Belmont to Win 100th Straight Game

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The Watertown High School field hockey team celebrated its 100th straight win on Sept. 9, 2025. (Photo by Teagan Parker / WCA-TV)

Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out. ~ Robert Collier

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. John F. Kennedy

Watertown began defense of their State D3 Title – make that the past four years in a row and 22 in the past 39 years, all under the guidance and leadership of Coach Eileen Donahue – last week. Wins at Lexington and Burlington (6-1 and 6-0 respectively) provided Watertown with their 98th and 99th consecutive contests without defeat. Their home opener against cross-town rival Belmont would provide a major early-season test, or at least that’s how Belmont surely thought of it. 

Considered a top 10 team in the Boston Globe pre-season rankings, the Marauders won their first two games as well. They played Watertown close last season in a 3-0 loss at Belmont, and they sported two seniors already committed to college programs next year, including Coach Donahue’s niece, who’s heading to UNC. So, the stage was set – the champs with the pedigree, but with a roster in transition, versus the challengers, eager to be the team to end Watertown’s epic undefeated streak.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Opens Football Season by Hosting Tricky Whittier Team

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We can never know about the days to comeBut we think about them anywayAnd I wonder if I’m really with you nowOr just chasin’ after some finer day…… Anticipation, anticipation

Well, of course, Carly Simon’s song Anticipation is a love song, not a football anthem.  Then again, the song isn’t about ketchup, but it had a good run helping to advertise the condiment years ago. Anyhow, the point is, after a tough 2024 season, a winter, spring and summer to prepare, and weeks of training camp this August, the Watertown Football program anxiously anticipated Friday night’s Sept. 5th game versus Whittier Regional Vocational Tech High School. It was a first chance to put last season behind them while at the same time building on a two-game winning streak at the end of last season (a non-league game and a Thanksgiving win over Belmont). The Raiders came into this game feeling stronger thanks to a commitment to off-season lifting.  They felt deeper with an additional twelve new football players. And they felt even more comfortable with a head coach in his second year and having their back, and having them prepared to play. The Senior/Junior-heavy lineup included the following on offense: junior Coleman Keuchkarian-McKeen at QB, senior running backs Patrick McHugh, Gabe Oliveira and Mike Ramirez and Junior Jayden Pineda, senior Wide Receivers Joe Wilson and Lucas Bray, Junior Shane Garey and Sophomore Mason Lamacchia, at Tight End Juniors Joe Connors and Cash Bailey, and on the line Seniors Caleb Hardy, Pedro Tancredo, Jayden Ortiz and Zac Wolfe, and Juniors Peter Pavlidis, Flavio Valenzuela and Billy Werra.

Sports

Watertown Battled First Place Wakefield on Senior Night

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Senior night is always special. It doesn’t matter if a team has a winning record or a losing one, is heading to the post-season tournament or not. Senior night is about family and friends. Senior night is about remembering all the good times and the practice and the commitment and the training and the devotion to team. Parents and grandparents and siblings share in the joy and recognition. And when the night is done, it’s hard to believe that one’s high school career is almost at an end. Well, for Jack Brisson, Patrick Johnson-Ciano, Lucas Pizzuto, Jack Brennan, Domenic Moynihan, Daniel Heep, Emilio Berndt, Adam Wainwright, Joseph Parmley and G’Nai Concannon-Garvin, baseball senior night has officially come and gone, and while Watertown came up just short against first-place Wakefield 3-2, it was a memorable night.  

The starting lineup included seniors at first (Pizzuto), shortstop (Berndt), third (Moynihan), center (Brennan) and DH (Wainwright).  On the opposite end of the spectrum, Watertown’s starting pitcher was the impressive freshman, Julian Boas. Boas ended up pitching four and third, giving up three runs on six hits, but he kept his team in the game. In relief, the equally impressive left hander Michael Caterino, also a freshman, pitched shutout ball for two-and-two-thirds innings. Wakefield’s starting pitcher threw a complete game and struck out 10. He also went two-for-four at the plate with an RBI single in the first.

Sports

Two Straight Victories for Watertown Baseball Team

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Sports is full of cliches, and baseball is no exception. You’re only as good as your starting pitcher. Your best players need to be your best players. Swing the bat. Put the ball in play and good things will happen. Well, these cliches were all on full display at Victory Field Thursday evening as Watertown took two from Wilmington. First up was the completion of a suspended game with Wilmington from April 15. The game resumed in the 5th inning and Watertown trailing 5-1. Watertown got some excellent pitching from freshman Lefty Michael Caterino, who kept Wilmington at 5 runs. In the meantime, Watertown went to the seventh inning having cut the lead to 5-4. They put the ball in play and good things did happen, tying it in the seventh and winning it in the eighth inning, as Kingston Omalade slid into home for the walk-off win. This ended a five-game losing streak and put Watertown at 4-9 on the season. Game 2

The regularly scheduled game matched Wilmington’s ace, a tall right hander with a plus fastball and curve. Watertown countered with freshman Julian Boas. This young man is very composed on the mound, and throws three pitches effectively for strikes — a fastball, curve and changeup. So, both teams were instantly good because their starting pitcher made them good. 

Wilmington’s righthander is going to Hobart in the Fall to continue his baseball career, but in the here and now in the first inning Jack Brennan led off with an infield single, moved to second when Emilio Berndt was hit by a pitch, and scored when Jayden Pineda delivered an excellent swing that resulted in a line-drive, opposite field single to score the first run of the game.

Sports

Raiders Baseball Faces Hard Hitting Arlington Team

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Baseball is such a great game. While it might seem to be all about the pitcher and batter, there’s so much else in play. Every pitch and every swing produces a reaction and a responsibility from every player either in the field or on the bases. And when, as a team, you are swinging the bats well and running the bases aggressively and making the plays in the field, you feel invincible. Unfortunately, Watertown Baseball isn’t at that happy place at the moment, and it showed last night as the Raiders lost to Arlington 14-0 at Victory Field. Watertown finished their April schedule this week with losses on Monday at home to Reading and Wednesday on the road to Winchester. Good riddance to April! Hope was in the air, though.  One, a turn of the calendar to a new month would bring better results. Two, last year’s starting catcher, Andrew Reilly, returned to the lineup Thursday night after sitting out April with an injury. And, three, Watertown’s best pitcher to date, Lucas Pizzuto was on the mound. Arlington countered with a lefty with good stuff – a sneaky fastball, a sweeping curveball thrown from different arm slots, and a change up. Optimism “left the building” quickly though, as Pizzuto lasted only 8 batters while giving up 5 runs. The first inning was a peek into the state of the Raiders nine at the moment – not cohesive, not making the fundamental plays, not communicating – and in baseball, there’s very little room for error.

Sports

Watertown Baseball Faces Powerful Reading Squad

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Monday Night April 28th Watertown Baseball looked to end a two-game losing streak versus perennial Middlesex League Baseball power Reading. Unfortunately, it didn’t come to be, as Watertown took it on the chin by the score of 14-2 in five innings at Victory Field. It was a beautiful spring night, not a cloud in the sky and nary a sign of even the slightest breeze as the flag located down the first base line was entirely still. 

Senior co-captain Domenic Moynihan has done his best to do it all this spring, from playing second & third to catching (while starting-catcher Andrew Reilly heals from an off-season injury), to pitching, all while batting second game after game. Last night he was asked to take the mound by Coach Aram Manoukian. What transgressed was any pitchers worst nightmare, and one that many before the well-intended Moynihan have experienced – he couldn’t find the strike zone. The first four Reading hitters all drew walks. 1-0 Reading. Moynihan hung in and struck out the five-hitter, and was now a double-play ground ball away from escaping the inning. Control woes returned though, and three of the next four walked and Moynihan’s night on the mound was done. Nine batters, seven walks, one hit, one strikeout.

Sports

Watertown Baseball Faced Powerful Melrose Team at Victory Field

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Friday afternoon Varsity Baseball played their second game in three days, and looked to get back on the winning track after a Wednesday loss at Wakefield by the score of 11-2. Visiting the Raiders was a Melrose team with a 6-3 record, and winners of five in a row. Watertown sent their ace to the mound, senior righthander Lucas Pizzuto, who had pitched deep into all his outings so far this season, including an impressive 8-inning performance Friday night April 18 versus Stoneham, a game Watertown won 5-4. 

On this day, though, Pizzuto lacked a bit of his usual reliable control, and he just couldn’t get his curveball moving or throw it for strikes. It didn’t help that Melrose swung the bats early and often, spraying the ball all over the field. Pizzuto ended up only pitching two innings and giving up four runs. But baseball is a team game, and this was a team loss, final score Melrose 10 – Watertown 0.