As he entered his senior year, Harrison’s Frank Barrera had a goal in mind for this season, one that most would have considered ambitious considering he had never scored a varsity goal before.
“I set my goal as 20 goals this season at the beginning,” said Barrera. “I’m just happy that I was able to accomplish that.”
Not only did Barrera reach the 20-goal mark, the way he reached the milestone and what that goal represented won’t soon be forgotten.
In the 29th minute of Harrison’s North 2, Group 2 final against Hackettstown, Barrera headed in Christopher Pereira’s corner kick to score what proved to be the only goal of the game giving the Blue Tide its second sectional title in three years.
For Barrera, not only was it his 20th goal of the season, but the fifth in four state tournament games for the forward.
Barrera’s incredible state tournament run makes him The Observer Athlete of Week.
“It feels amazing, scoring such an important goal,” Barrera said. “I love this town, Harrison, and especially my boys, my team, and just making that goal means a lot to me.”
“Twenty goals is difficult to do nowadays,” said head coach Mike Rusek, admitting he didn’t anticipate 20 goals from Barrera going into the season. “Our league is much better (than in the past). Every game was tight and close. So of the 20 goals, I would probably say 15 out of the 20 were in really, really big situations where they were the first goal or the game winning goal.”
There’s no bigger time than the state tournament and that’s where Barrera has been at his best, scoring at least one goal in each of the Blue Tide’s four state games as it has defeated Mendham, Lyndhurst and Madison before the final.
Four of those five goals have come courtesy of Pereira sending the ball into the box on restarts or crosses to Barrera, who’s combination of size and nimble feet have given Harrison an aerial component to restarts it’s rarely had over the years.
“To have a guy that’s that strong in the air, we’re not even used to it as coaches,” Rusek said. “So he won the game for us on both ends. The way I look at it, because I really feel like in a normal year for us, without him on the field, one of those long (Hackettstown) throw-ins would’ve connected with a down forward or one of their heads, and it would’ve went in the goal and we we would’ve been tied up. But Frank headed them all out on the defensive end, coming back as a forward.
“It’s a pleasant surprise for the coaching staff and for the whole program that we have someone that’s just that effective in the air. For a big guy, he’s got really soft feet, which is a rarity sometimes. You see he put the ball on the ground and just dribble at people. You’re like, wow, that was impressive on that end too. So he’s really an exceptional forward and we’re really lucky that he’s come around the way he has.”
Barrera was expected to have a notable role last year as a junior, but those hopes were dashed in Harrison’s final scrimmage when he fouled on a hard slide tackle and suffered a broken clavicle
The injury sidelined him for all of his junior season and in hindsight left a huge void in the Blue Tide offense.
“For me it was very frustrating,” said Barrera, who was healed in time to play club soccer with Ironbound after the season as well as be a starter for Harrison’s county championship volleyball team in the spring. “I was very angry watching them play and me being on the sidelines obviously hurt a lot.”
“We knew he was a good player (coming from JV), but we didn’t know how important he was going to be on varsity,” Rusek said. “Looking back at it, I sure wish we were able to get a look last year. He would’ve changed the dynamics of last year’s team dramatically.”
Instead, Barrera is making up for lost time. While he will ultimately only have one varsity season with the blue and white, he’s made sure to make it a memorable one.
“This last year, my senior year, my first year of varsity soccer, I was willing to put everything on the line, make everything count,” Barrera said. “I do get jealous sometimes knowing that my friends have two years or more years on varsity than me. But I’m just glad I came out this year and I know I did the best that I can.”
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)