FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – There was a distinctly New England feel to last weekend’s 4-0 win over Real Salt Lake – and it had nothing to do with the surprisingly crisp late April weather.
No, it was the players themselves who provided the local flavor.
Three of the Revolution’s four goal scorers against RSL – Scott Caldwell (Braintree, Mass.), Charlie Davies (Manchester, N.H.) and Chris Tierney (Wellesley, Mass.) – were born and raised in New England, giving quite literal meaning to the term “hometown team.”
“I think it’s special to have guys from New England on this team and guys playing from New England on this team,” said Davies, who had a record-setting career at the Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, before playing collegiately at Boston College. “We’re all doing well.”
Tierney, who played against Davies in high school while attending the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts, opened the scoring on Saturday night with a (surprising) right-footed drive. It was the 10th career MLS goal for Tierney, who’s spent eight years with the team he grew up supporting.
Capping the scoring with his first career goal was Caldwell, who remained calm and composed amidst a scramble in the box to rifle home from 18 yards. Caldwell, signed as the Revs’ second Homegrown player prior to the 2013 season, was the original captain of the Revolution’s Under-18 team back in 2008.
In between, Davies finished off a goal which involved all three. Tierney laid a short pass off to Caldwell, who whipped a cross into the box for Davies to head home. It was the first time all three had combined on a goal since the decisive tally in last year’s Eastern Conference Championship.
Diego Fagundez, who grew up in Leominster, Massachusetts, and signed as the Revolution’s first-ever Homegrown player as a 15-year-old in 2010, almost made it four local goal scorers in a single game, but was denied from point-blank range by RSL goalkeeper Jeff Attinella in the late stages.
More than just an interesting footnote, Saturday night’s flood of local goal scorers and the significance of such an event wasn’t lost on Davies, whose head coach – you guessed it – is another local in Jay Heaps, born in Nashua, New Hampshire, and raised in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
“To have success for the hometown team, it’s priceless,” Davies said. “It’s something I’ve always dreamed of and I’m living my dream as we speak. It’s something that when I’m 80 years old, I’ll be able to look back and think about what a special opportunity this was for me.”
And what Davies truly hopes is that young soccer players in New England can use local pros like himself, Caldwell, Fagundez and Tierney as inspiration to push for their own dreams.
Davies wants young fans in the stands at Gillette Stadium to see him score, and smile, and celebrate for the hometown team and think, one day, that could be me.
“It’s great for the youth in the area,” Davies said, “knowing that one day they can make their dreams come true and play for this team, just like I had this same dream.”
