Boys soccer: Notre Dame’s Bartes impressed all season long

Two statements help explain Notre Dame junior Brett Bartes’ knack for scoring highlight reel goals on the soccer field.

First, the forward scored from the halfway line in a 4-3 victory over Joliet Catholic in late September.

Second, that probably was not Bartes’ best strike of the season.

Bartes and ND head coach Chris Caudill agree Bartes’ best goal came in the team’s other ESCC victory, a 3-1 triumph over Marist on Oct. 8. However, the coach and player differ on which of Bartes’ two goals in that game really takes the cake.

“The one from the halfway line was his most surprising goal of the year,” the third-year head coach Caudill said. “But there were some I like more just because they required great skills. There was the one against Marist where he received the ball at the halfway line, turned and powered past two defenders and shot into the right corner from the top of the box.

“He had a few that were similar to that, but that one sticks out because it was a big game against a conference rival.”

However, Bartes said his best goal came earlier in that game when he bent his 35-yard free kick around the wall and the ball tucked itself inside the far post.

Bartes scored a team-high 17 goals for the Dons, who finished 6-9-1. The third-year varsity player has upped his goal total each season after getting three as a freshman and eight as a sophomore.

Bartes’ attributes as a striker are many: he has pace, strength, fine footwork, a powerful shot, an ability to shoot with either foot, a quick release on his shot, good vision and the ability to be in the right place at the right time.

“He has an ability to terrify defenders at times, there is no other way to describe it,” Caudill said.

The 5-foot-11, 160-pound Bartes said he enjoys playing for a coach like Caudill, who does not stifle his creativity.

“(Caudill) let’s me do what I want on the field, if it’s not too crazy,” Bartes said. “He doesn’t get mad if I lose the ball. He encourages me and my teammates to do what we want (with the ball).”

But the soccer landscape is littered with players who have dazzled with the ball, but failed to turn that fancy footwork into goals or assists. Bartes not only scores goals, he scores important goals.

“There is not a kid more valuable to his team this year than Brett because of the sheer number of goals he scored and his ability to recognize when he needs to step up in a game and take over,” Caudill said.

Bartes, who lives in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, not only scored twice in the Marist win, he also had a hat trick against Joliet Catholic and assisted on the overtime game-winner.

His goal from the halfway line in that contest was a momentum-changer, coming on the kickoff just after the Hilltoppers had taken a 2-0 lead.

Bartes said it was not the first time he had tried something so audacious.

“I usually look up during the kickoff to see if the goalie is off his line,” he said. “Sometimes I try to kick it over his head. I’ve tried that a lot of times, and it finally paid off.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.