It was a record few, including the individual who would go on to surpass it, thought could ever be broken.

Enter Jake van Lierop, who not only surpassed the feat, he did so before the 2024 season had officially come to a close.

The Northwestern senior standout was head and shoulders above the rest on the soccer field this season.

A year ago, Northwestern’s Matt Johnson finished his senior season with career highs in goals (39) and assists (21). During the 2023 season, Johnson became the all-time goal scorer in the program’s history and wound up with 101 career goals — well ahead of the previous record of 84.

It was a phenomenal season, and his all-time goal record figured to stand for a while since the next highest current players — Jack Mauro and Logan Mesics — entered the 2024 season with 38 goals.

And then there was also van Lierop, who was well behind with 31 career goals during his first three seasons.

Mauro, Mesics, and van Lierop had a conversation just before this season about the fact that none of them had a realistic chance of breaking Johnson’s career mark, and it would probably stand for at least a few seasons.

As it turned out, they were all wrong.

The record was broken even before the 2024 season was over, and it was one of them — van Lierop — who scored an unprecedented 74 goals and reset the career mark at 105.

That chart-topping productivity earned van Lierop the Times News/Lehigh Valley Health Network Boys Soccer Player of the Year.

“At that point, Matt’s record seemed pretty safe, and we were all really impressed with how he played in his senior season and every season,” van Lierop said. “He was great and it was amazing watching him.”

“None of us figured on putting up the sort of numbers we would need in one season to get near his totals.”

And then the season started, and van Lierop seemed to score just about every time his foot (or head) touched the ball.

Before anyone really thought about records, van Lierop had doubled his career total and there appeared to be no stopping him — no matter how many defenders the opponents covered him with.

So, what made van Lierop so good in his senior season?

Part of the success came from van Lierop continuing to work on his game during the offseason, as well as some drills to increase his speed.

One of the keys to Johnson’s game had been his speed and ball handling. Van Lierop may not have had Johnson’s speed, but he was definitely faster as a senior than as a junior, and his ball handling had always been impressive and was now even better.

For his senior season, van Lierop was moved up front on the offensive attack after working in the midfield for his first three varsity seasons.

“We felt that he had the speed to play that role, and we needed someone to step up, so when the coaches talked about it the feeling was that he would work best in that role,” said coach Nate Hunsicker. “We figured on him scoring some goals, but I don’t think anybody would have predicted how dominating he really was.

“It was fun to watch him sometimes because you figured he was going to score, but the question was how he was going to do it. Then other times it looked like he had no chance, and he made something happen.”

Another part of the story was that Northwestern Lehigh also had other players that opponents had to keep tabs on. If they didn’t, either the ball would be played through to them, or van Lierop would simply give them the ball in a good spot, and they would bury the ball into the back of the goal.

Mesics had 20 goals and 18 assists in his junior season, and will enter his senior year with 58 career goals. Mauro added 16 goals and a team-high 30 assists, just ahead of van Lierop’s 29. Sophomore Cole Mertz also emerged as a goal scorer and delivered 23 goals for the Tigers.

“I don’t score a lot of those goals without the guys that were around me,” noted van Lierop, something he stressed throughout the season. “Our guys in the back play the ball up and get it up front in a good position, and the other guys up front are really talented so it wasn’t like the pressure was all on me to score the goals or lead the offense.”

The emergence of other players helped van Lierop and his teammates finish the season with a state championship — the second in three seasons for Northwestern — and an unblemished 28-0 record.

It also resulted in van Lierop’s inclusion on the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association All-State Team along with Mauro.

“The undefeated season and state championship were so amazing. We really wanted to win states, and then to do it with a perfect season was awesome,” said van Lierop.

“I figured I had a shot at making the all-state team, but I didn’t give it a lot of thought because the championship was the thing that I really wanted.”