Shattering records no surprise for Bellefonte girls’ soccer player Mallorie Smith

Before she even played her first varsity soccer game, Mallorie Smith was already setting her sights on Bellefonte’s career goal-scoring record.

Smith saw Morgan Brooks filling the net with one goal after another for the Lady Red Raiders and, at the team banquet after her senior season, Brooks was honored for setting the program’s career standard.

“I went home that night and said, ‘I want to be just as good as Morgan or I want to be better than Morgan,’” Smith recalled. “That’s what I said to my parents. I looked up to Morgan.”

A little less than two week ago at Rogers Stadium, despite needing a huge scoring effort, she accomplished her goal.

What is even more impressive than making that bold forecast was that she needed fewer than two seasons to climb to No. 1. The sophomore striker has 57 goals to her credit as Bellefonte (10-7) heads to Somerset (14-5) for a 6 p.m. Monday meeting in the District 6 Class 3A semifinals.

Along with the career mark, Smith also broke the single-season program record with her 29 goals to better her 28 last year. To crack the two marks on Oct. 11, during the team’s last home game of the season, she needed to score six goals against rival Bald Eagle Area. The Lady Eagles were pretty familiar with Smith and held her to no goals and one assist when the teams met earlier in the season.

“When that first goal went in, I gained so much confidence,” Smith said. “Usually if I score any, I just score one against them. But it just kept going from there, and especially playing Bald Eagle, it was really cool.”

After the sixth score hit the net in the 7-0 victory, she got plenty of congratulatory hugs — including from Brooks. The 2016 graduate, who netted 56 goals in four seasons and is now playing at Penn College, was at the game and also sent a note the next day encouraging Smith.

“Records are meant to be broken, and that’s how you excel,” said coach Stacey Miller, who picked up her 150th career win this fall. “You reach for those goals and those records and try to do better than the people who came before you.”

Smith, who also has five assists, certainly has been prolific this year. In addition to the game against BEA, she has two other five-goal outings among her six hat tricks, and she has accounted for 57 percent of the team’s 51 total goals.

Although she may have taken many opponents by surprise as a freshman, she was a well-known commodity this fall. Frequently she was marked on runs into the offensive end, man-to-man coverage to keep her contained. She did her best to use that so teammates would have an easier time scoring.

“If teams are marking me, I’ll be smart about it,” Smith said. “I’ll take them over to a part of the field where she’ll follow me and give (us) a big opening in the middle, so someone like Bree (McDaniel) or Mackenzie (Hubbs) can run onto it.”

Also a starter in basketball and softball, Smith also has honed her soccer skills playing for the Central Penn United club program in the spring and summer. She’s been a soccer fan since she was about 5, and watches plenty of games on TV. Among her favorite players is U.S. national team star Alex Morgan, who scored a goal recently while taking a hard hit from an opponent in the middle of the box.

Smith thought the play looked pretty familiar — just like her first varsity score last fall.

“She put her whole body into the shot,” Smith said. “I can just see me doing that, that type of shot.”

With Smith’s ability to find the back of the net, and an expected two more seasons in red and white, Miller and the Lady Raiders know the bar for future stars will be set a lot higher for a program in just its 18th season of varsity play.

“Other programs have 100 career goals,” Miller said. “I would think that’s where she’s going to set her next goal. As a program, that’s a goal we’re looking to accomplish.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2017 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Shattering records no surprise for Bellefonte girls’ soccer player Mallorie Smith."