JIM’S VIEW: Boys Soccer Remains Undefeated After Pulling Out a 2-2 Tie

Are you a half-empty or half-full sports fan? Wednesday night’s Boys soccer game would put that question to the test. Was Watertown the better team and just ran into some hard luck, but found a way to salvage a tie? Or did the Raiders let a win slip away because of a few lapses and are fortunate to even get a tie? Or is the truth somewhere in-between? Who knows, but ultimately all that matters is what the young men in Watertown uniforms think, and how they respond Saturday night at home versus second place Melrose.

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Field Hockey’s Streak Ends in Battle of 2024 State Champs

Coaches often speak in cliches. Kids gave it their all… Every game is a big game… We learned a lot about ourselves tonight… and so on. All those cliches would be true after tonight’s non-league game between Somerset Berkley and Watertown at Victory Field. Watertown came into the game as four-time defending Division 3 Champs, 6-0 in 2025 and on a 103 undefeated streak spanning more than five seasons. Somerset came into the contest with one loss and a title, having won the Division 2 State title in 2024. Something had to give on a warm and muggy third night of Fall.  What everyone in attendance was treated to was an exciting and hard-fought high school athletic contest, one that reminded one and all why athletic competition can be so cool, so fun, and so heartbreaking. Is it really fair to characterize tonight’s loss as heartbreaking when you haven’t lost in 103 straight games? Sure. Competition is competition, streak or no streak, and Watertown’s squad left it all out there on the field tonight. By the end of the game, co-captain’s Ava Lamacchia and Sophia Setouhi were fighting leg cramps, for example. And you know what, the challenge of this evening seemed to me to be simply wanting to beat a Div.

Gold Kings Hockey Hosting Exhibition Game, Free Admission

The champions return to the ice in Watertown on Sept. 27 for an exhibition game against the Salem Sasquatch. Admission is free for the game, which begins at 8:35 p.m.

Last season, the Gold Kings clinched the Power Play Senior Hockey League title at John A. Ryan Arena last April. The team fought back to complete a 5-4 come from behind victory over Salem in Game 2 of the best-of-three finals. The semi-pro team heads into its third season in 2025-26.

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Field Hockey Keeps on Trucking Against Stoneham

Of Watertown’s first five games this Fall, only one was at home, back on Sept. 9th. It was a classic though, as Watertown edged Belmont 2-1 to reach the century mark undefeated for the second time in the program’s illustrious history. Thursday, on a beautiful and warm late-summer day, the Raiders played the first of five straight at home against the 0-3-3 Spartans. Watertown was looking to go to 6-0 on the young season. Coach Donahue’s squad did what it so often does — win — by completely controlling this game. Final score, Watertown 5 Stoneham 0.

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

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. Two 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.

Watertown Soccer Night Returns to Victory Field on Sept. 27

The following announcement was provided by Watertown Youth Soccer:

Soccer fans, families, and the entire Watertown community are invited to Watertown Soccer Night 2025 on Saturday, Sept. 27th at Victory Field. This year’s celebration will be bigger and better than ever, with the WHS Girls and Boys Varsity teams featured in a doubleheader at Victory Field. The evening kicks off with the Girls Varsity game vs. Melrose at 4 p.m., followed by the Boys Varsity game vs.

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

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.

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

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.