Beyer’s blitz fuels Falcons

Next stop, GMCT semifinals

By: David Gurney
   Garrett Beyer probably stands a generous five feet seven inches.
   Maybe a little more, maybe a little less depending on the season, or the weather.
   But soccer, more or less, is about elusiveness, timing and finishing.
   For Beyer: check, check, and check.
   The spunky dynamo provided the spark for No. 3 Monroe in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinals, scoring three goals in a span of six minutes to open the contest and propel the Monroe Township High School boys soccer team to a 6-1 triumph over No. 11 Old Bridge.
   With the victory, the Falcons move on to the semifinals in East Brunswick to face 2nd-seeded North Brunswick. The game was tentatively scheduled for 1 p.m. on the Fairgrounds field on Cranbury Road as of press time.
   Monroe has fallen twice by one goal to North Brunswick this season.
   After the game, Beyer was still shocked in the amount of time and fashion in which the hat trick took place.
   To score a goal in six minutes, well, that’s normal.
   But three in six?
   Shocking, to say the least.
   "I’ve never had a hat trick this quick," Beyer said. "Still can’t believe it. It’s good that we scored quickly to put them away. It was big to come out and get three early to take the pressure off everyone on the field."
   And they came in a variety of ways.
   After forward Frank Carr’s run downfield forced the corner, sweeper Zach Theinert’s kick somehow found itself on the head of the smallest guy in the box in Beyer for the game’s first goal.
   Only 40 seconds later, it was Beyer again around the net, this time capitalizing off a rebound of midfielder Brendan Sebastian’s shot, which squirted past the keeper onto the foot of Beyer.
   The third and perhaps most impressive, came after Sebastian’s shot by the net was blocked. He composed himself inside the 18-yard box and dropped the ball off to Beyer, who inside-outed a shot to the far right corner of the net to cap off the hat trick.
   Three goals by the 27:20 mark.
   "He did a good job finding his spaces and getting to the ball," Monroe head coach Steve McKenzie said. "He’s able to get free a lot and the team and ball found him.
   "For such a smaller guy, he wins most of the balls in the air. And he’s always so full of energy, it’s non-stop."
   From the start, Old Bridge was overmatched by the much quicker and more physical Falcons. Much of that, as the Falcons would admit, comes from cohesion on the field and the ability to master the home field, literally.
   "The turf does help us, because most of our team likes to keep the ball on the ground and move it around, it allows us to play quick," said midfielder Spencer Lawrence, who notched a goal and assist in the win. "I think our team calms down here and we love to play on the turf. The ball stays true and we can keep possession."
   The ball has definitely stayed true during the first two contests in the GMCT’s.
   Monroe has outscored its tournament opponents 12-3 in the first two matches, with all three goals allowed coming in the waning moments of the games.
   But it won’t come that easy against North Brunswick, who advanced to the semifinals after a convincing 3-0 victory over No. 7 Metuchen.
   And field surface won’t be a factor. The Raiders have beaten the Falcons both on field turf and grass this year.
   Yet, the well-known axiom says that the ‘third time is the charm.’
   The Falcons are definitely buying into that.
   "I think the whole team is playing well right now and we just wanted to step up to the counties," Lawrence said. "We wanted to get to the semis to get another shot at North Brunswick. We feel we should have beat them twice during the regular season and lost both."