Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Football Runs Out Of Treats, Losing After Holding a Halftime Lead

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The Super Bowl is practically a national holiday. Halloween comes pretty close. Come 5 p.m., you’re either getting ready at home for the doorbell to ring with trick-or-treaters, you’re putting on the final touches of a costume for yourself for a party or for your trick-or-treating children – or, you are turning off the lights and going to dinner. It’s a crazy and hectic end of almost two months of candy sales, Halloween programming on TV and outrageous front yard decorations. One thing you don’t expect to have happen on Halloween is a high school football game. But, the calendar says Happy Halloween on Friday night once every seven years, and Friday Night Football is a pretty special thing as well. So, Watertown football kept its game on Friday night rather than moving it up a day as some communities did, and it was an important game to boot.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Plays First-Place Burlington Tough at Victory Field

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There is no substitute for practice, and in football there is a lot of it. At the high school level, except for an occasional day off here and there, it’s play Friday night, watch film on the weekend, practice Monday through Thursday and then play again on Friday. And football practice can be monotonous, running the same play over and over again until it’s executed to perfection. But, in the end, it’s all worth it, especially when everything clicks on the field on game day! That was the case for the Raiders the last time they got to play on their home turf in a shutout of Brookline way back on September 26. Then it was on the road against Stoneham, Wakefield and Melrose. The Raiders played Stoneham tough, but could only muster 12 points in defeat. Then it was a loss to Wakefield 27-17. But the biggest loss was last week, and it wasn’t on the scoreboard. At Melrose, Watertown’s Junior QB Coleman Keuchkarian-McKeen injured his knee in the first quarter and Watertown went on to lose 21-0. A much bigger loss was losing Keuchkarian for the season with a torn meniscus. Of course, as big a blow as it is for the team, it’s crushing for the player, who had established himself throwing and running the ball, 

So, you can imagine what practice was like this week trying to prepare for Burlington, 3 and 0 in league play and 6 and 0 overall. And trying to incorporate a new offensive system.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown’s “Own” Boston Gold Kings Start Title Defense with a Wild Win

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The Boston Gold Kings play hockey in the Power Play Senior Hockey League (PPSHL). The Gold Kings also happen to make Watertown their home, playing their home games at the John A.Ryan Arena. The Gold Kings have worked hard to make a footprint in the community the past few years, making appearances at Faire on the Square, for example. And the Gold King’s sponsor list includes many Watertown businesses. The Power Play Senior Hockey League, Northeast Region, added a fifth team for the 2025 season, adding Hudson Valley to go along with Salem, Holyoke, Norfolk, and the Gold Kings. In the ’24 playoffs, the Gold Kings swept Holyoke in the semis did the same to top-seed Salem in the finals. On Saturday night, Boston and Holyoke got the ’25 season started, and it was a wild ride indeed, with the Gold Kings prevailing 7-6 on a game-winner with 1:20 to go in regulation. Now the PPSHL plays three 20 minute periods, just like pro leagues. It’s a full-checking league, and even fighting is allowed. Four officials suit up as further evidence of the seriousness of the competition. Rosters are made up of professionals, as in professionals in other aspects of life, and who love the sport of hockey and want to continue playing in something more competitive than a Tuesday night league that skates for an hour at 10 p.m., fully equipped with cold pucks and cold ones in the cooler.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Raiders Field Hockey Dominates Melrose, Anderson Leads the Way

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Watertown’s schedule has allowed them to play nothing but home games of late, and that continued versus Melrose. This game was a one-sided affair that Watertown led from start to finish. Avangeline Anderson netted 5 goals today to lead the way for Watertown. Watertown peppered the Melrose goalie early and often, and she had trouble controlling rebounds, and her defense wasn’t very helpful when it came to clearing the ball. Anderson was always in position and scored a number of her goals off rebounds, her stick ready to knock the ball in the cage. Anderson scored two in the first period, one in the second, one in the third and one in the fourth. Kaylee Master had three goals of her own, Aisling Brennock two and Sophia Setouhi and Katelyn O’Connor each contributed one. Unofficial totals had Watertown with at least 25 shots on net to only three for Melrose. The interesting storyline for me is the simple fact that Watertown scored 12 goals — or more specifically they were allowed to score 12 goals. Now look, what I know about field hockey is next to nothing. It has been fun and an honor to cover Watertown Field Hockey the past few years. They work hard, they play hard, and the deserve all the accolades they receive.     

So, by watching their games, you come to learn some things. One thing I’ve learned is that when Watertown gets up by seven goals they shut it down, so to speak. They stop taking shots on goal.  They stop even taking the ball towards the goal. Today, they went up 6-0.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Boys Regains First Place Division With Victory in Soccer Night Matchup

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Soccer nights have become a “thing” and Watertown’s was last night. The nightcap featured first place versus second place in the Freedom Division of the Middlesex League, specifically Melrose at 3-0-1 and 7 points, and the Raiders in second place at 2-0-2 and 6 points. Overall, Melrose was 4-2-2 and Watertown undefeated through eight games at 3-0-5. There you go — all you need to know before a 6:30 start on a beautiful fall night before a big soccer night crowd. Much like recent games, Watertown got off to a good start and controlled the play early. The back line of Shea, Brennock, Marques and Shrestha was anticipating the play and pushing the ball up field. Galeano, Anker, Hughes, Kurth, Salvi and Foley were handling the tempo up front. And only 6 minutes in Gavin Foley, with an assist to Salvi found an opening from 25-yards out nailed a ball to the top right corner for a 1-0 Watertown lead. Twelve minutes later Foley struck again with an assist from Anker to make it 2-0.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Field Hockey Wastes No Time Getting Back To Their Winning Ways

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Watertown Field Hockey expects to be the best. They practice hard. They train and play year-round. They have a legendary coach in her 40th year who cares about her players, cares about teaching the sport, but also cares about teaching life-lessons. So, while no one feels sorry for Watertown after they lost for the first time since 2019 on Tuesday, players were certainly eager to learn from the loss and move on towards their ultimate goal — another State title. Watertown did just that Thursday afternoon, shutting out Wakefield 8-0. The first half was played under a steady rain, but didn’t cause much in the way of slipping or errant play. Watertown controlled the action, but just couldn’t find the back of the cage. The Raiders were even awarded a penalty stroke (aka, penalty shot), but Kaylee Master was stonewalled by the Wakefield goaltender.

Sports

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

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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.

Sports

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

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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.