CARY, N.C. – Zach Herivaux was well on his way to a Man of the Match performance even before he notched the game-winning goal in extra time of Wednesday night’s 1-0 win over the Carolina RailHawks, a result that sends the New England Revolution into the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16.
But the goal was admittedly a nice little bonus.
“He’s put in the work in training and he gets rewarded with a game in the Open Cup, and he goes and scores the game winner,” goalkeeper Brad Knighton said with a smile. “He put in a hell of a performance on the offensive side and defensive side.”
Herivaux very much grabbed hold of his first real opportunity for significant minutes with the Revolution. The 20-year-old Homegrown Player had totaled just seven pro minutes before Wednesday night – three minutes in last year’s Open Cup and four minutes in a regular-season game this past March.
It did, however, take Herivaux a bit to settle into his surroundings at WakeMed Soccer Park. Head coach Jay Heaps noted that the young midfielder actually benefitted from the two hour, 14-minute weather delay that halted proceedings less than 10 minutes after the opening whistle.
“Before the break, the first nine minutes, we thought he was a little bit tentative, a little bit nervous,” Heaps said of Herivaux. “During the break we had a little heart to heart with him just to free himself up, play his way into the game, and I thought that’s what he did.”
“[The coaches] came up to me, they told me to relax, don’t stress, just have fun and play your game. That’s exactly what I did when I came out,” Herivaux said. “All my teammates supported me, allowed me to play my game, and we ended up with this result.”
And the result was made possible by Herivaux’s first professional goal, scored in the 103rd minute after the Revs and RailHawks needed extra time following a scoreless regulation period. It was a goal worthy of winning any game, under any circumstances.
Herivaux is not a goal scorer by trade, but one wouldn’t know that by watching this particular strike. After clever work by Scott Caldwell and Lee Nguyen to tee him up, Herivaux drilled a 20-yard shot past the outstretched arms of Carolina goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald and just under the crossbar.
“I was about to trap the ball, but Lee was telling me, ‘leave it, leave it,’” Herivaux said. “I knew he was right behind me and I knew once I left it, I just had to spin off him. I knew I’d get the ball back and once I got the ball, I saw the goal and Chris (Tierney) was yelling, ‘shoot it, shoot it.’ I shot it and basically just blacked out.”
The memory of Herivaux’s first pro goal will last a lifetime, but the celebration itself was short-lived.
“I was trying to run somewhere. I was trying to go to the bench, kind of weaving through,” Herivaux said of the immediate aftermath of his strike. “But Kei (Kamara) just threw me to the ground and my legs were dead, so I just flopped over.”
It was a deserved moment of rest for Herivaux, who ran himself ragged throughout the 120 minutes, putting himself about from box to box with boundless energy. And with the Revs onto the next round of the Open Cup, it’s likely Herivaux will have another chance to impress soon enough.
“Of course he scored the goal, but he did a lot of things up to that point; winning challenges, defending when he had to, playing quickly,” Heaps said of the youngster. “We were really excited with his progression tonight.”
