LISBON FALLS – Marcus Bubar wanted to be the best.

He didn’t just want to improve upon the previous season. He wanted to put himself among the top players in the state. He aimed high, and with a scoring touch like Bubar’s, he didn’t miss. That’s what earned him the Sun Journal Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year.

“At the beginning of the year, I had a goal of 25 goals and 10 assists for myself, and I wanted the team to reach the MVCs,” Bubar said. “I also wanted to get (MVC) player of the year. All three happened. So it was a good year.”

They were pretty bold targets to shoot for, but they were milestones Bubar felt were within his reach. After netting six goals as a freshman, he scored 21 last fall. He saw no reason why he couldn’t better that and put his team and himself among the elite in Western B.

“When you score 25 goals in the regular season, that’s a third of our goals,” Lisbon coach Dan Sylvester said. “I think everybody looked for him. He was a stable goal scorer for us.”

Bubar was the top scorer in all of Western B with 26 goals and was among the top goal scorers in the state. He not only earned MVC Player of the Year honors, but was also named to the all-regional team for Western B. As a junior, he’s already set the single season and career mark for goals scored at Lisbon.

“He’s just a grinder,” Sylvester said. “The way he gets the goals, especially against the bigger teams. You could always rely on him. If you needed a goal, it pretty much would be coming from Marcus.”

There were only three games in which Bubar didn’t score a goal. If he wasn’t scoring goals, he was setting up his teammates, reaching his objective of 10 assists. That was the part of his game that he focused on this year.

“I wanted to have a better passing game because I knew I was going to get covered more,” he said.

Bubar got plenty of attention from defenders, but he worked to find ways around it. He’d dish off to teammates and make defenders chase him. He’d let his teammates find him and get him the ball around the net. Sylvester says he’d marvel at some of the goals Bubar scored.

“One of them, he had three defenders and the goalie on him,” Sylvester said. “I don’t know how he put it in the back of the net. He just finds a way. It’s like the ball is a magnet and Marcus is a piece of metal.”

His success wasn’t just in his own stats. Bubar benefited from a strong Lisbon defense and a good transition game. Bubar says his success was a matter of being in the right place at the right time and letting his teammate find him. He also worked hard to get open and had a pretty good finishing touch.

The result for the Greyhounds was a 13-1 record in the regular season and a second straight MVC title. Lisbon was ranked second in Western B, but drew a quality Freeport team in the quarterfinal and lost in overtime.

Sylvester is excited to have seven starters returning next year, including Bubar. Though roles may be different, he knows Bubar will find a way to help the team succeed.

“He’ll take it on his shoulders and do what he needs to do for the team,” Sylvester said. “It’s not just about Marcus. He wants the whole team to do well around him. If that means putting the team on his shoulders, he’ll do that. If it means trying to find other people, he’ll do that.”