Brotherly Bond Sparks John Glenn Goals
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
September 15, 2020
It didn’t take even a half for the Beson-Montoya brothers to show off the potential of their connection this season.
Freshman forward Lawsen Beson-Montoya scored two goals during the first 40 minutes of his debut for the Bay City John Glenn boys soccer team on Sept. 8, and each of those goals was assisted by his brother Lance, a senior.
It was as though they had been playing together for years – except it was the first time they’d been on the field together for a game.
“Honestly, I feel like it wasn’t surprising to them,” John Glenn coach Justin Page said. “I think they almost expected to have some sort of chemistry. The more you play together, the more chemistry you’re going to have with each other. They haven’t been playing with each other, but both of them have watched the other play enough that they know what type of player they are.”
Lance and Lawsen have been playing soccer since they can remember, but with a three-year age gap, they had never suited up for the same team. They’ve even been part of different non-school programs for the past two years, with Lance playing in the Bay Area Soccer Association and Lawsen with the Midland Fusion.
Their mother, Lance said, was most excited about the chance to have both brothers on the same field. But it’s an opportunity that they also are relishing.
“Especially for high school sports, I think the best part about it is playing with your friends and the social aspect,” Lawsen said. “So, it’s great to get to play with him, my buddies and his buddies, too.”
Playing varsity as a freshman was a goal for Lawsen, and something Lance had expected his brother to achieve. While they weren’t playing together, they would often work on their games together, sometimes joined by their youngest brother Landen, who is in sixth grade. During these training sessions, big brother isn’t giving any freebies.
“He doesn’t really cut me any slack when we’re playing around,” Lawsen said. “He’s the older brother; he kind of roughs me up. He doesn’t really go easy on me, because he wants me to be at the level he’s at.”
For Page, though, the freshman being a viable varsity contributor was mostly just hearsay until he was able to see the speedster in action.
“Last year, I heard about him,” Page said. “’Oh, Lance’s brother is coming next year and he’s pretty good.’ You don’t know how good he’s going to be until the first kickoff of the first game. You could do all of these soccer drills extremely well, but when games start, it’s completely different.”
The early production only heightened the excitement and showed what the brothers are capable of in the John Glenn attack with Lance playing center midfield and Lawsen playing forward.
“It was awesome,” Lance said. “I kind of knew what my main goal was, and that was send the ball up to him because he’s got great speed. The first one, I just booted it up the field, and he was there. The second was a cross from a corner kick and he headed it in.”
While their natural chemistry is helping them connect on the field, their differing styles of play are too, as both brothers said they complement each other.
“Me and my brother are completely different players on the field – the physical aspect of it,” Lawsen said. “I was the one that was always the little dude on the field; he was more like a brick house. He might not have the speed I do, but he has foot skills like nobody compared to him. I was watching him thinking, ‘I have to get better on my foot skills.’ We’re like Batman and Robin, in a way.”
John Glenn is off to a 1-3 start, but the Bobcats are optimistic about the way they’ve played to this point against what Page said is tough competition.
“I think we’re going to pick it up here coming up in this next stretch,” he said. “I think the starting point we’ve had this year is fairly good, even if the record doesn’t show it. We’re going to start putting together a win streak coming up here, hopefully, and ideally we can put ourselves in a position to win the first-ever boys soccer District championship at John Glenn.”
A strong core of players who return from last year’s Bay County Tournament champions – including Lance – lead the way, and the contributions of youngsters like Lawsen can help make it possible.
Either way, it’s going to be a memorable year for the Beson-Montoya family.
“I knew this year was going to be fun because I knew what my brother could do,” Lance said. “I knew I could trust him and what his strong suits were.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lance, left, and Lawsen Beson-Montoya are providing an exciting connection for the Bay City John Glenn boys soccer team this fall. (Middle) Lawsen (22) and Lance (23) listen in during a break. (Photos courtesy of the Bay City John Glenn boys soccer program.)
Performance: WMC's Jameson Goorman
November 1, 2019
Jameson Goorman
Muskegon Western Michigan Christian senior – Soccer
The Warriors’ senior keeper is the first to credit the defenders in front of him for Western Michigan Christian’s five shutouts in six Division 4 tournament games over the last three weeks. But he deserves ample credit as well, and came up with a number of key saves in last week’s 2-1 shootout win over top-ranked Grandville Calvin Christian to help his team to the Semifinals and earn the MHSAA “Performance of the Week.”
Fourth-ranked WMC will face No. 2 Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett in Saturday’s Division 4 Final, and it can be argued no team has traveled a tougher road to the season’s final day. After blanking three District opponents, Goorman helped the Warriors to a 3-0 shutout of No. 3 North Muskegon in the Regional Semifinal. Next was Calvin, and Goorman made two saves during the second period of overtime and two more during the shootout, including on Calvin’s final shot to ice the win. He then had another shutout as WMC defeated No. 5 Dansville in Wednesday’s Semifinal, his 14th shutout this season, which took his goals-against average down to 0.57. Goorman joined the varsity for the District as a freshman and then was the part-time starter for the first part of his sophomore year before taking over when his partner in net was injured. He made the Division 4 all-state third team in 2018 and over his career has logged 45 shutouts, seventh-most in MHSAA history.
Goorman also has played baseball and basketball during his high school career, although he has decided to not play basketball this winter. But the court certainly has had a major impact on Jameson as an athlete, directly and indirectly – his grandfather Jim Goorman led WMC’s boys basketball varsity to 504 wins and five Class D titles from 1980-2012. There’s also a family background in soccer championships – Jameson’s dad Jamie was on the Warriors’ 1988 Class C-D title-winning team. Jameson is hoping to continue playing soccer at the collegiate level and also carries a grade-point average approaching 3.5. He plans to study either nursing or accounting.
Coach David Hulings said: “He knows the game and is able to interpret what he sees so quickly that he’s able to do what he needs to do. This year he had two really great saves, one against Reeths-Puffer that kept us in the game and allowed us to finish with a tie. The other was against Leland in the last five minutes of the game. He made a tremendous save and we won 1-0. … In our first game against Orchard View, they had seven breakaways and Jameson saved every one of them. Those were give-me goals, and he stopped them. I don’t know of a goalkeeper in my nearly three decades of coaching who is better 1-on-1 than Jamo.” (Comments first appeared in the Local Sports Journal.)
Performance Point: “I think since we got to the playoffs, we’ve been playing our best soccer,” Goorman said. “I haven’t had to make a ton of saves, other than the PKs, so most of the credit should go to my defense. (Opponents) haven’t had a ton of opportunities. Against Grandville Calvin Christian we went to a PK shootout. I’ve always been pretty good at PKs, so I just go in there thinking I’m going to save every single PK. For me, I was pretty confident going into it. … My sophomore and junior years, we lost in PKs both years in Regionals. We did not want to go out on PKs again, so we’ve been practicing that all year. I was getting pretty confident in our chances in that. My sophomore and junior year I felt really nervous, but going into the last shootout I felt really confident; I didn’t feel that nervous . I was more excited than I was nervous.”
It’s the guys in front of me: “Brandon Fles, I think he’s one of the top two defenders in the state if not the best defender in the state, in my opinion. He’s been phenomenal since sophomore year. Him and Jake Betten, Isaiah Visker and Brandon Eenigenburg, the whole back line has played really well. I think most of the credit should go to them. There haven’t been too many teams that have challenged me a lot. There’s been some shots, but a lot of them have been from far out and not too hard to handle.”
Playoff path: “Calvin, North Muskegon and Dansville were all really quality teams. … With our team, it’s probably a little different than with any other team. We really like to stay loose, relaxed and just be ourselves for the games. And during practices we stay loose; we have fun. We’re just enjoying every minute of it. … It’s definitely not easy to have fun and stay loose and play hard and keep the intensity up, but I think that’s something we’ve just learned to do well going into the postseason. We’ve been trying to prepare ourselves all year for this, so I don’t think it’s been too hard to bring our best game every single game.”
Grandpa taught us: “It’s awesome being in a family with him. He’s really showed me how to win and how to have confidence, but also not (to) be overconfident and cocky. (He) showed me how to be humble, and I think I really appreciate that – and just how always to have good sportsmanship.”
Pitch play: “(Soccer has) probably come the most natural to me. I’ve had to work harder in baseball to get good at that – I’ve worked at that my whole life. I think soccer has come more naturally, and I’ve put more time and effort into that. I started playing club soccer my eighth grade year. It helped me so much with my feet, helped me get going, and then I started to really love soccer. I played it a lot more, so it became really fun for me, and I love my team. … I think after my sophomore year, I really just started to realize that I loved it more and I enjoyed playing it and I was getting better at it.”
– Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Past honorees
Oct. 24: Austin Plotkin, Brimley cross country - Report
Oct. 17: Jack Spamer, Brighton cross country - Report
Oct. 10: Kaylee Maat, Hudsonville volleyball - Report
Oct. 3: Emily Paupore, Negaunee cross country - Report
Sept. 26: Josh Mason, South Lyon soccer - Report
Sept. 19: Ariel Chang, Utica Eisenhower golf - Report
Sept. 12: Jordyn Shipps, DeWitt swimming - Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Muskegon Western Michigan Christian's Jameson Goorman lines up a kick downfield. (Middle) Goorman makes a save during the Warriors' Regional Final shootout win last week over Grandville Calvin Christian. (Photos by Randy Riksen.)