Bishop Stang keeper not only prevents goals, he scores them

By goalkeeper standards, it’s a scoring spree.

Last Saturday, in a boys’ soccer game against St. Mary’s of Lynn, Bishop Stang High School senior Declan Markey scored on a direct kick from his side of the field. It marked the second straight season that Stang’s keeper has scored a goal, and neither have come on penalty kicks.

Markey’s goals can be attributed to his strong right leg, strong wind and luck. He puts a huge emphasis on the latter two factors. “To be honest,” the Stang senior said on Wednesday night, “it’s completely luck.”

Last year against Middleboro, Markey scored on a punt from the top of the penalty area box. This year, the goal came on a direct kick from about 70 yards out.

In both cases, Markey said, he had a powerful wind in his favor and the opposing goalkeeper misjudged the ball. In both cases, the ball took a big bounce over the opposing keeper and bounced into the goal.

Markey said that both goals came early in the game, before the opposing keeper had a chance to gauge what the wind could do to the ball. On Saturday, he said, the goal happened in the first 30 seconds .

Having the keeper take a free kick from so far out is risky. A mis-kick can send the opposition on the attack with the keeper struggling to get back to his goal. Stang coach Nate Greene obviously has faith in Markey. Stang routinely lets him come way out for free kicks. And the 6-foot-2, 165-pound Markey said the objective when he takes those free kicks is not a goal, at least not directly.

“I’m really just trying to play it to my forwards to give them a chance to score,” he said.

Surrendering such a long-range goal is a keeper’s nightmare and Markey knows he could be on the other end of things some day. “It’s always in the back of my mind,” the Dartmouth resident said. “I’ve feared it before.”

For the record, Markey is not just a scoring machine. It would have been tough not to award him player of the game honors against St. Mary’s. Stang won the game 2-0, with Markey not only scoring but stopping a penalty kick.

Last year’s goal was caught on video and can be viewed on Twitter. Thus far, Markey said when asked, no video of his 2020 goal has surfaced.

With football having been moved from fall to the new Fall II season starting in late February, Markey said he's pondered putting his strong right leg to work on the gridiron. "We'll see when the times comes to make that decision," he said.

Email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @GregSullivanHN.