He'll give school scoring record the boot

The high-pitched ding came across Mike Kennedy's computer a few days before the Lynnfield High boys' soccer team opened its season against Ipswich.

It was his big brother Rob. The gist of the instant message was something along these lines.

Bigbrothersoccerstar88: sup mike

XXLilbrothersoccerstarXX: sup

Bigbrothersoccerstar88: you break my record yet?

XXLilbrothersoccerstarXX: lol, no not yet

The season hadn't started yet, but Rob knew it was only a matter of time.

That Mike will bust his brother's scoring record to bits is a foregone conclusion. Rob Kennedy set Lynnfield's career mark of 47 goals two seasons ago. Mike, the defending Cape Ann League Player of the Year, entered the season with 38 goals. Then he scored two against Ipswich on Monday. On Tuesday, he connected for three more against Hamilton-Wenham Regional, lifting his total to 43.

Rob didn't have to hit Mike on instant messenger to find out.

"I've heard," he said.

After locking up the CAL title the past two years, the Pioneers are looking to make it a three-peat, but the side story is Kennedy's assault on the school record.

"He's going to break my record pretty soon," Rob said. "So I'll be hearing about that from my entire family. I look at it like it's more fun than anything. If anyone's going to beat it, I'm glad it's him."

When Rob was assembling that milestone, Mike was waiting his turn. It was a matter of time more than talent. Rob knew how good his brother could be, and so did Pioneers coach Brent Munroe, who saw this coming when Mike first joined the team.

"The potential was always there," Munroe said. "I mean we talked about Mike after his sophomore year having a chance to break our school scoring record."

That was back when Mike had just 12 goals to his name. Back when Rob had just earned Eastern Mass. All-Star honors. Back when potential was all Munroe had to go on.

Then came Mike's junior season, and the scoring binge that ripped through the Cape Ann League and sent the Pioneers to the Division 3 state final. Mike put up a league-high 26 goals, and all the foresight in the world couldn't have prepared Munroe for a season like that.

"I didn't expect 26," Munroe said. "That's kind of off the charts but the potential was always there. I knew he was going to be a good player. I didn't know he was going to be this good."

For what it's worth, Mike only wanted to be as good as his brother. From the time he spent juggling in the backyard, to the years they played on the same club team, to those two years when they shared the field for Lynnfield.

"He always made me work as hard," Mike said of Rob. "I always wanted to be as good as him. That was my motivation. I never thought it would be like this."

It wasn't until his brother left, and he became the team's focal point, that Mike finally understood what his brother went through.

"I knew that once my brother was gone that I'd be that forward that would get marked and everything," said Mike, who will head to Northeastern University next fall to play soccer. "But I didn't know there was going to be a guy on me the whole game and a defense around me."

Those 26 goals last year came while he was being shadowed, double- and triple-teamed.

The first game of this season it was more of the same, as Ipswich High coach Rick Storer, whom Mike called a genius, kept a sweeper cheating to Mike's side of the field and still couldn't keep him out of the scoring book.

"It's getting kind of scary now," said Rob, a sophomore midfielder at New England College in Henniker, N.H. "I always thought I was so much better. But he's getting closer if not better right now. So he's progressing much better than I did."

In his breakout season, Mike had the luxury of playing with a cast of strong senior defenders that could launch the ball his way from the other end of the field.

"I didn't have to work too much," he said.

This year, he's relying on midfielders like A.J. Johnson to work with him on give-and-go's, Tino Acierno to play long ball to open spaces, and Phil Knox to be a banger and feed him the ball.

He trusts them because they all have the same feeling after reaching the state final last year only to fall, 1-0, to Bartlett, letting the winning goal get by on a direct kick with just 12 seconds left.

"The couple guys coming back are definitely hungry to get that state championship ring," Mike said. "And I think we have the team to do it."

Mike just has one personal matter to take care of along the way.