Since he was a freshman, Beecher’s Wences Baumgartner has been making scoring goals look easy.
But the thought that he could score more times than anyone in Illinois High School Association history? That never crossed Baumgartner’s mind until earlier this season. And it’s still hard for him to wrap his head around.
“Coming in as a freshman, if you would have told me this would happen, I wouldn’t have believed you at all,” Baumgartner said. “Now, it feels amazing.
“For that week where I was really close, it was a heavy weight on my shoulders. So, once I got it, the relief was huge and it felt great.”
Baumgartner broke the IHSA career goals record on Oct. 2. The senior forward added to his mark Wednesday night, scoring four more times to lift his career total to 182 as he led the host Bobcats to an 8-0 win over Grant Park in a River Valley Conference Tournament semifinal.
Axel Juarez also scored twice for Beecher (16-5-1), while Paxton Gorcowski and Vince Durante added a goal apiece. Stanley Detjin made two saves for the shutout, getting plenty of help from a defense led by Miguel Corral, Duke Doran and Jadyn Hill.
Grant Park (7-12-2) trailed just 1-0 at halftime before the Bobcats put together a huge second half.
It was the second straight game between Beecher and the Dragons, who closed the regular-season portion of the conference schedule against each other on Oct. 2.
Baumgartner entered that game one goal shy of the record of 177 set by Crete-Monee’s Carlos Posada from 2007 to 2011. When Baumgartner scored his second goal that night, the celebration was on.
“Everybody on the sideline erupted,” Baumgartner said. “It was very loud. All my family was there. There were a bunch of signs. I’ve got like nine signs sitting at home now. So, it felt amazing.”
Baumgartner’s teammates were thrilled to experience the historic moment with him, according to junior midfielder Axel Avila.
“I’ve never seen anything like him,” Avila said. “Being a part of him getting this record is something that’s probably going to stay up there in my heart, for sure.”
Baumgartner has scored 59 goals this season. But when he started playing soccer at age 5, he was actually preventing them.
“I was a goalkeeper for the first three years maybe,” Baumgartner said. “Then I started playing the field. That’s when the goals started coming and it just exploded from there.”
Baumgartner came into the season chasing a different record. Logan Wilkins, who was Baumgartner’s teammate the last three seasons, scored 138 before graduating in the spring. That made him Beecher’s all-time leader and put him at No. 14 on the IHSA list.
Baumgartner, who began the season with 123 goals, passed Wilkins a couple weeks into the fall.
The IHSA record? That wasn’t on his radar until recently.
“I didn’t even know it was within my reach until maybe a week into the season, one of my teammates told me that he had seen an article about it,” Baumgartner said. “Even then, I was like, ‘OK, I’m not going to pay too much attention. I’ve just got to do what I do.’
“Once we got halfway into the season and I got closer, it became a thing. It was like, ‘OK, let’s go do this.’”
Hill pointed out that didn’t make Baumgartner play selfishly, though.
“He’s just super humble,” Hill said. “He doesn’t care about the stats. He just goes out there to help the team and it just comes naturally. He’s not out there forcing it.”
Beecher coach Dawn Compton urged Baumgartner to go after the record.
“He shies away from the spotlight,” Compton said. “He doesn’t want that on him. But we told him, ‘You need to go get this. it’s your time.’”
And it sure was.
“Everyone was talking about it midway through the season,” Baumgartner said. “It clicked, ‘I can do this.’ My teammates and my family really motivated me.”