Bart Keinath knew not to doubt Tim Clark when he said he would break South Portland’s career points record Feb. 2 against Massabesic.
Keinath, the Red Riots’ coach, has seen his star player in action enough times to know that an eight-point game, while lofty, is an achievable goal.
Clark, who broke the school’s career goal record – formerly 100, now 113 and counting – with a hat trick against Westbrook Jan. 26, wanted to overtake Rob Pascale (class of 2000) for the points (goals and assists) lead while his brother, Ben, was home visiting from college.
So that’s what he did.
“He went out and just did it, which makes it that much more amazing when he can just decide on a day that he’s going to do that and can,” said Keinath.
Clark scored six goals and added two assists in a 9-0 win over Massabesic. The clincher, his 169th point, came with just over three minutes to play in the third period. Clark fed fellow senior captain Jason Battle for a one-timer.
“A lot of people had been saying stuff about it lately and asking me if I was going to break it this year,” said Clark, who had four more points against Gray-New Gloucester to get to 173. “So it was just nice to get it over with and break it and see if I can set it a little bit higher.”
Clark has six more regular-season games left to pad his stats. More important than that, though, he’s hoping to be able to lead South Portland into the playoffs on a high note – the Red Riots had won four in a row as of press time.
“It’d be nice to win a first-round playoff game because even my freshman year and sophomore year when we were pretty good (we didn’t win),” said Clark. “We played Cheverus my sophomore year and we lost by one, but we still have never won a playoff game.”
According to Keinath, if anyone’s going to lead the Red Riots (8-6) to that elusive win, it’s Clark.
“If he wanted to, he could go out there and score four to 10 goals a night, and I don’t care who he plays against,” said Keinath. “He’s done it before. He scored as a sophomore and junior. He’ll score against the Cheveruses, the Portlands and Falmouths at just as fast a clip as he’s scoring against some of the weaker teams.”
And Clark makes others around him better, too.
“He’s taken some freshmen both this year and last year under his wing and said on the bench, ‘You haven’t gotten a goal yet, we’ll get one for you this shift,'” Keinath added. “And he’s taken a freshman out on a shift with him and really done all the work and set him up and gotten him a goal.”
Clark, a four-year varsity player, remembers what it was like to be a freshman. He knows how important it is to play with confidence.
“When I was a freshman it seemed like I was more timid to get hit and stuff, but as you get older you get used to it and you get open more because you’re not scared of getting hit,” he said. “You pick up your head and get open more.”
And then you go out and you pile up close to 200 career points. It’s as simple as that.
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