Goalkeeper Leaves Impressive HS Soccer Career

Boyer's contributions were many over the last three years. He had 52 varsity wins-- the most in school history. He recorded 17 shutouts this year, giving up just eight goals-- two were on penalty kicks.

"What I thought was really special was playing with all my friends, and to win a county championship was awesome,'' said Boyer, who is considering joining his brother Bryan at Rutgers University Newark. "We all worked as a team. We knew how each other played. Really it was about the commitment to work as one.''

Of course, Boyer had a lot to do with it.

“Scott has been the backbone of our team for the past three seasons, and has worked with a number of outstanding defenders over that time,‘’ said Cranford boy's soccer coach Mike Curci. “His take charge attitude, athleticism and his will to win have helped him to become not only the best keeper in the county but one of the best in the state."

The Cougars beat Westfield 1-0 to capture the county title for the first time. Boyer praised the play of defenders Patrick Kaskiw, Eric Walano, Rob Ghiretti and Ryan Lopes.

"If you watched him during our county championship run, he was sensational when he had to be,‘’ Curci said. “He would be the first to give credit to the guys in front of him for their ability to keep opposing chances to a minimum, but what can't be forgotten, is that a great save early in the game often means victory in the end. That was the case in the final versus Westfield. He made an amazing save on a point blank shot in the first half which kept it scoreless, we put one in a few minutes later and that turned out to be the game after a scoreless second half. That's why he's been so valuable to us since he's been here."

Cranford was winless in its three prior trips to the county final. It's county final appearance was its first since 2002.

"Westfield had a couple of nice shots, but our defense did a good job limiting them,'' said Boyer, who made five saves in the county final. "Our defense did a lot for me. I wouldn't have had as many shutouts as I do if it wasn't for them.''

Boyer will be one of several graduating Cougars that will be hard to replace.

“I knew he had the potential to be very good because of his size, quickness and athletic ability,‘’ Curci said. “He started his freshman year at junior varsity to get that all-important playing time and quickly moved up that season. Remember, he had 15 wins as a sophomore to lead us to our first conference championship in school history. We had a great back four, and the pressure of playing with a number of seniors. But they quickly gained trust in each other. He was thrown into the fire quickly and that's a big reason why he's become the player he is today."