Last Friday was a roller coaster of an outing for Pablo Moreira and New England Revolution II. After conceding the game’s opening goal in the 71st minute, first-teamer Marcos Zambrano scored two quick goals in the final 10 minutes to put New England up 2-1.

Just as it looked like Revs II would snap a four-game winning streak and secure a crucial three points, an unfortunate lapse in stoppage time allowed the home side to find the equalizer. The independent side sent their fans home happy after securing a 4-2 shootout victory.

With the regular season winding down, Revolution II are teetering on the verge of earning automatic qualification or entering a dreaded play-in game, and Pablo Moreira knows his side needed to pick up points here, saying his team “had to see that game out for points.”

Despite the negatives, Moreira had some positive things to say after the result in Carolina. On the bright side, Friday’s draw and shootout loss saw Revolution II avoid a fifth-straight loss.

“At the end of the day, you’re trying to gain momentum," he said. "Trying to stop momentum the way it was going, and we were able to do that… A lot of it is stopping the bleeding, and I think we did that today.”

Friday also saw the long-anticipated return of defender Jared Smith, who had been out of action since July 5th after suffering an injury that forced him to undergo surgery.

While on a 30-minute restriction, Moreira was incredibly happy to see Smith back on the pitch and commended his determination during the recovery process and effort in the return.

“He’s worked his tail off to get back," Moreira said. "He was really chomping at the bit last week, but he wasn’t necessarily cleared to play. I was happy he earned the 30 minutes in training. I thought he was a spark plug for us. He definitely helped us out.”

New England Revolution II sit in seventh place with 43 points on an 11-8-7 record with three shootout victories. Moreira and Revolution II will need to get themselves out of the gutter when they hit the road to face a familiar foe in fourth-placed Columbus Crew 2 on Sunday.