Brockton United's Ricky Alves, left, follows the deflected ball behind Nashua 's John Volodya during Saturday's UPSL game at Rivier University's Joanne Merrill Field. Brockton won, 4-1. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Eagles of the International Soccer Club of Nashua saw what they hope is their future on Saturday evening.

The problem is, the future for their opponent, Brockton FC United, is now, and the visitors showed that with a resounding 4-1 over the Eagles at chilly Joanne Merrill Field on the campus of Rivier University.

“They’re No. 1 in the whole Northeast for a reason,” said Eagles assistant/acting head coach Diego Cardoso, filling in for head man Eusebio Marote, who was out of the region on personal business. “They’ve played together for awhile, they’ve played overseas. They know what they’re doing.

“We’re regrouping, lot of new guys, new coaches, that will be us in a few years. Absolutley.”

And local fans will look for that down the road, but Saturday, unless they travel, was their last look at the Eagles this year. Their home schedule was condensed in just over a month’s time as Rivier is putting in new field turf for Merrill Field with preparations beginning this week. The Eagles will play the rest of the season, into early June on the road.

No doubt last night’s matchup was not a good one for Nashua (1-3-2 in the UPSL’s Premier New England Division ), as Brockton was bigger, faster, stronger – and older. They got two goals from Maldini Fonseca, one 11 minutes in that created a 1-0 halftime lead, and another as he willed his way down the middle of the field and beat Nashua keeper Joe Sturzo for a 2-0 lead two minutes into the second half.

If it weren’t for Sturzo (12 saves), the score would’ve been more lopsided.

Brockton took its time scoping out how Nashua was going to defend, and then attack. They owned the time of possession all night, although their pressure was relaxed once the game was in hand.

“We didn’t know (Nashua) very well, so we didn’t know how the game was going to go,” Brockton coach Bruno Teixeira said. “We just went with what we have, and we played very well.”

Nilton Teixeira, an All-American at UMass-Boston, scored a similar hard, driving goal to make it 3-0 18 minutes into the second half, but Nashua got on the board on a rocket shot by newcomer Trevor Demers inside of 10 minutes remaining. But Brockton’s Ricky Alves answered two minutes later and that was that. Nashua also missed a couple of free kicks and a controversial off-sides call prevented what looked like an Eagle breakaway.

“We held our own for most of the game,” Cardoso said. “A couple of mistakes, two set pieces, that’s how it goes.”

Nashua seemed tentative early, but part of that was by design.

“We wanted to test the waters a little bit, see what they could do,” Cardoso said. “They just play well together, man. They saw what we were playing, they knew where to go. You could tell they’ve played together for years.”

And had a huge physical advantage. Brockton is 5-0 for a reason, and its maturity was a clear difference.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys, freshmen, sophomores in college,” Cardoso said. “I’d say we’re one of the youngest teams in the league, if not the youngest in this region. Age, experience but that will be us in a few years.”