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New England Revolution II

Revolution II Defeat Carolina Core FC, 2-1, in Home Opener

March 31, 2024 - MLS NEXT Pro (MLS NEXT Pro)
New England Revolution II News Release


FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - New England Revolution II (1-1-0; 3 pts.) defeated Carolina Core FC (0-2-1; 2 pts.), 2-1, on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium for their first win of the 2024 season. Homegrown Players Malcolm Fry and Jack Panayotou each registered goal-and-assist performances in the win.

Revolution II found the scoresheet early, capitalizing off a corner kick taken by Panayotou in the third minute. The Homegrown midfielder found Fry in the box, who headed the ball into the back of the net to mark the Groton, Mass. native's first goal of the season. Carolina leveled the match in the 37th minute to send the two teams into halftime in a 1-1 tie.

Fry and Panayotou combined again for the game-winner in the 59th minute. This time, Fry carried the ball into the box, crossing a rebound off Carolina's keeper to Panayotou, who tapped in the ball with his right foot to retake New England's lead. Goalkeeper Max Weinstein stood strong in net alongside New England's defense, allowing Revolution II to close out their first win of the year.

A total of eight Revolution Academy products saw action in today's victory with Fry, Panayotou, Weinstein, Colby Quiñones, and Damario McIntosh all earning starts while Gevork Diarbian, Eric Klein, and Cristiano Oliveira all subbed in during the second half. New England newcomer Luka Borovic also saw his first minutes in MLS NEXT Pro, subbing in for Panayotou in the 80th minute.

Revolution II heads back on the road for the first of three consecutive away games next Wednesday, April 10 to take on FC Cincinnati 2 at NKU Soccer Stadium. The 6 p.m. ET match streams live on MLSNEXTPro.com.

New England Revolution II 2, Carolina Core FC 1

March 31, 2024 - Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)

Revolution II registered their first home win of the season. Dating back to 2023, New England is 11-2-5 at Gillette Stadium including the postseason.

Homegrown midfielder Jack Panayotou and Homegrown forward Malcolm Fry each recorded a goal-and-assist performance in their first appearances of the year with New England's second team.

Forward Andrej Bjelajac made his second consecutive start and led his team with three shots, one on target.

Goalkeeper Max Weinstein made two saves in the match.

Academy products Gevork Diarbian, Cristiano Oliveira, and Eric Klein all entered in the second half to mark their first Revolution II appearances at Gillette Stadium this season.

Midfielder Luka Borovic entered the match in the 80th minute to record his MLS NEXT Pro debut.

GAME CAPSULE

Referee: John Matto

Assistant Referees: Eric Schreiber, Justen Lopez

Fourth Official: Jessica Carnevale

Weather: 57 degrees and partly cloudy

Scoring Summary:

NE - Malcolm Fry 1 (Jack Panayotou 1) 3'

CCFC - David Polanco (Facundo Canete) 37'

NE - Jack Panayotou (Malcolm Fry) 59'

Misconduct Summary:

NE - Colby Quiñones (Yellow Card - Hard Foul) 20'

CCFC - Jesus Orejuela (Yellow Card - Hard Foul) 25'

CCFC - Jeremiah Jackson White - Hard Foul) 40'

NE - Hesron Barry (Yellow Card - Hard Foul) 56'

CCFC - Facundo Canete (Yellow Card - Hard Foul) 87'

NE - Max Weinstein (Yellow Card - Time Wasting) 90'+8

New England Revolution II: Max Weinstein; Colby Quiñones, Hesron Barry, Victor Souza (Eric Klein 80'), Damario McIntosh; Maciel (Patrick Leal 40'), Jack Panayotou (Luka Borovic 80'), Marcos Dias; Malcolm Fry (Gevork Diarbian 63'), Andrej Bjelajac (Cristiano Oliveira 63'), Alex Monis.

Substitutes Not Used: Brandonn Bueno, Steban Lopera, Olger Escobar, JD Gunn.

Carolina Core FC: Alex Sutton; Kai Thomas, Ibrahim Covi, Christian Diaz (Joshua Rodriguez 84'); Cristian Gregoire (Carlos Mario Diaz 66'), Jesus Orejuela (Luis Lugo 66'), Jacob Evans, Facundo Cante, Jeremiah Jackson White IV (Jathan Juarez 70'); Yekeson Subah, David Polanco (Pape Ndoye 70').

Substitutes Not Used: Andre Pannenburg, Angel Aguas.

New England Revolution II Team Statistics Carolina Core FC

9 (4) Shots (on Target) 15 (3)

3 Blocked Shots 6

2 Saves 2

6 Corner Kicks 5

0 Offsides 0

16 Fouls 12

365 (85.2%) Passes Attempted (% Completed) 405 (87.4%)

POSTGAME QUOTES: New England Revolution II 2, Carolina Core FC 1

New England Revolution II Head Coach Richie Williams

On today's performance:

Williams: "I think it's great that we got the win; got the three points. It was, again, a good start to the game, which I thought we had last week. Got an early goal. Credit to the Carolina [Core FC] team. They made it hard. They were physical, they played very direct at times, put us under pressure. So, I thought, even though we got off to good start, there were times where we had some careless turnovers in the first half and played kind of into their hands a little bit. But then they came back with a goal, good finish by their player [David Polanco]. The second half though, I thought we did much better in terms of putting some passes together, creating more opportunities. We weren't very dangerous after the first ball in the first half. But at the end of the day, I think it was good that they were able to hang together, fight, battle; the guys who came off the bench did a really good job and against a team that was very physical and made it difficult on us in terms of the style of play that they have."

On the importance of getting their first win:

Williams: "It's great. I congratulated them on their first win. We keep talking about, a lot of this is development, or second team's a lot of development for our first team, but the big part of development is competing and knowing how to win games. So, its good early in the season to get a win and to get confidence, but also for them to be able to learn how maybe on a day where we weren't our best or the opposition is making it very difficult on us how can we stick together, fight, battle and at the end of the day get three points and a win."

On Jack Panayiotou and Malcolm Fry combining for both goals:

Wiliams: "For sure contributing to the goals, which is great. It's great to see that they [Jack Panayiotou and Malcolm Fry] can come down and create and score goals for us, so that's awesome. And then it's good for them, they need to get not just to get minutes, but get significant minutes. And even for players like those guys, it's a difficult game. We were playing against some older players that were more physical, so the likes of Jack and Malcolm, who are still young, it's a good exercise for them to get out there and play minutes and do well within our group. So, it was great to have them and hopefully they continue to get better; get developed just like the rest of them."

On drawing up Malcolm Fry's set piece goal:

Williams: "That's for Yuta [Nomura]. Yuta did that. He's our set piece guy. That was great. Good delivery, good finish, so it was nice to see."

On Patrick Leal entering the match for Maciel:

Williams: "Patrick's [Leal] not really a six, but we didn't have anybody in that position. Our new player, Luka [Borovic], could potentially play there, but he's only been with us for a week, so we didn't think that was the right time just to throw him into the mix, but Patrick was fine. He did a good job for us as a six, and that's what we need is for everyone to step up. Especially coming off the bench if somebody gets injured, I've got to make changes. Guys coming in have to be impactful, and I thought he did fine."

Homegrown Forward Malcolm Fry:

On the last time he scored a goal with his head:

Fry: "See, I easily could say never, but I think that there was a practice when I was like U-10 that I got on to it. I'm not even sure it went in, but it's been a long time. I think you could see how surprised I was when it went in, but it's exciting. I'm trying to score goals in different ways, so that's a good start, I guess."

On goalkeeper coach Yuta Nomura working with the team on set pieces:

Fry: "Perfect. I've only been in training with the second team once this week, and it was yesterday, and we did a bunch of set pieces, and he [Yuta Nomura] is so on it. It's so awesome. I'm a huge Arsenal fan, and you can see every time they have a set piece, their set piece coach is right there, and Yuta is the exact same. He's always on it. Before the game, as we're walking out, he's asking us who our markers are, everything. He makes sure we're fully on it, and we all trust him. A lot of times set pieces, they're a good chance to score, but sometimes people don't buy into them as much. Yuta, I think his biggest strength is he gets us to really buy into the plan."

On the performance and finding a way to grind out a win:

Fry: "We were just talking about it inside. I think it was a good performance, even maybe a really good performance with the circumstances, but I don't think it was yet a championship performance that we can put out. And I think even just last week and this week, nothing changes - we can still learn from it. But I think we showed some really good moments, and then we showed a lot of moments where we can still grow. Like [head coach] Richie [Williams] was saying to us, it's a good sign when we can win and dominate games in periods when we're not at our best, maybe. I think it was a good performance, but we've got - I don't want to say a long way to go, but we can improve in a lot of different ways."

On combining with Jack Panayotou on both goals:

Fry: "Oh yeah, that's my guy. We return the favor to each other all the time on FIFA, so it's nice to do it in real life, too."

On his connection with Jack Panayotou dating back to their time in the Academy:

Fry: "I've played with Jack [Panayotou], it's kind of the same with Noel [Buck], they're my brothers now. I've said this before, but it's so awesome. I feel so grateful to be able to look over and see someone come up with me, one of my best friends, and we still have fun on the professional field, which is, it's just amazing. Us trying to do the same thing, it's really fun."

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