FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It hadn’t been the most exciting game of soccer ever played up to that point, and it was in desperate need of a spark. The score was still level between New England and Mazatlán at the hour mark and, aside from a few close calls from the Revolution in the first half, neither team looked particularly like scoring. Something had to change.
Enter wingers Ema Boateng and Jack Panayotou in the 64th minute, and it didn’t take long for the game to get the jolt it needed – four minutes, to be precise. Boateng received the ball out wide, used his pace and footwork to create space, and played a clever through ball to the ever-toiling Matt Polster. Polster in turn threaded a cross to Panayotou, who tapped in from point-blank range and wheeled away with the exuberant joy of not only putting his team ahead, but of scoring the first senior goal of his career.
“It’s something I’ve always dreamed of,” the Cambridge, Mass. native said after the game. “I’ve imagined the feeling, and it was even better than I could have imagined. When I scored, I didn’t even know what to do, I was overcome with emotion.”
Luckily for him, members of the Revs bench were warming up next to the goal where Panayotou scored, and he hardly could have done anything but run over to celebrate with them. It was particularly meaningful that the first player he ran to was fellow Homegrown Malcolm Fry, sharing an embrace with the attacker who had only just made his senior debut a couple weeks prior.
“I’ve grown up playing with him for a while,” Panayotou said of his moment with Fry. “So, to have him [be] one of the first guys to come over and celebrate, it’s a good moment for us. And hopefully he’s next to score.”
It was a moment that hardly could have been written better for the young man to open his account, but head coach Caleb Porter shared after the final whistle that he had nearly handed Panayotou a spot in the starting XI against Los Cañoneros.
“I opted to go with [the] same lineup as last game [against FC Dallas], just because I wanted continuity,” Porter said. “But I really thought about starting Jack in the game, actually. I think he brings the ability to play in pockets, he’s pretty shifty one-v-one. In an open game, sometimes that’s not his type of game, but in a game where we’re trying to break down a low block, it’s a perfect game for him. So, I was real pleased he went in, him and Ema I thought lifted the game and gave us a spark, the spark we needed really, to score the goal.”
And for his own part, Panayotou said he could just sense that something was going to go right when Porter tapped him and Boateng to sub in.
“Coach just told us to be direct and go at people, try to change the game,” Panayotou said. “I told Ema, I was like, ‘I have a feeling we’re going to make something happen this time.’ And I guess we did.”
Boateng, meanwhile, lived up once again to his super-sub persona in his first game back in the squad since the end of June. Porter lifted up the Ghanaian winger for his contributions throughout the season, saying he was glad to have him back from injury at this crucial juncture.
“Ema has been a great sub for us, and the game’s he’s started he’s done extremely well,” Porter said. “It’s just great to have that pace. You could see right away when he went in the game, we have a player that can stretch and run and go one-v-one and put crosses in. We need that to fully execute our game model, we need pace and penetration, and one-v-one ability. So, he brings that.”
The goal from Panayotou marks just the latest in a string of massive moments from young Revolution players who have stepped up individually and collectively to help the team manage its injury difficulties in recent weeks. But as he and any of his teammates will tell you, this is only the start.
“I’m really happy seeing my fellow young guys do well, and I want to be in that group doing well, as well,” Panayotou said. “So, to get a goal here, it felt awesome, and there’s more to come.”
