Maple Grove has made scoring loads of goals a habit over the past three years.

Caleb Foley, the 2019 Post-Journal Player of the Year, ended his career with 64 tallies during his time at Maple Grove, while sophomore star Eli Moore scored a team-high 16 goals for the Red Dragons in 2020.

Behind a great many of those goals is this year’s Post-Journal Player of The Year — Nick Golando.

Leading the Red Dragons to back-to-back Section VI Class C titles in 2019 and 2020, Golando has proven himself to be the engine driving the heart of Maple Grove’s high-powered offense.

“He’s really been a major part of the team for the last three years,” Maple Grove head coach Cara Abbey said. “I’ve known Nick now for six years, and my first year as an assistant was his first year as a seventh-grader.”

“So this senior class has been kind of special because we started together,” Abbey added. “It was quite obvious even as a seventh-grader that he was a special soccer player.”

Early on Abbey took notice of a trait that Golando would carry throughout his years of success at the varsity level.

“Nick actually doesn’t care that much about scoring goals,” she said. “His priority every single season has been to tally the assists, the whole time. Assists mean so much more to him than goals ever have.”

The numbers bear that selflessness out.

As a sophomore, Golando finished with eight goals and 11 assists before grabbing 11 goals and 13 helpers as a junior. As a senior, Golando finished with 11 goals and eight assists, earning an All-Western New York Small School selection and being named to the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Central Division First Team.

“His vision on the field is rare,” Abbey said. “Even (early) he was the one setting up the goals.”

When looking for a example of Golando’s feel for the setup play, Abbey recalled Maple Grove’s final goal of the season. With three minutes left to play against Chautauqua Lake, Golando gathered in a ball from Tristan Spillane and headed out on a rush while looking for passing lanes.

“The whole way he is making this run you can see him looking for Eli Moore,” Abbey said. “He’s tracking Eli, crosses it at the perfect time, and Eli just one-touches it into the goal. Nick’s reaction to that proved what kind of player he is. He doesn’t care if he gets the goals, he just wants to create the goals. I noticed that trait in him very young. He had a knack for seeing the goals happen and knowing what to do to get to that point, and that is a super-valuable trait in a player, which is why I wanted him to be in the center.”

Moore would celebrate the final goal of the season by turning and pretending to draw a bow and shoot an arrow into the opposing goal — Golando’s patented celebration.

Taking in the lessons and examples of talented teammates during his own career — midfielders like Simon Olson and Jack Novotny — Golando has now had the opportunity to mentor the next generation of Maple Grove players.

“Eli has been somebody that Nick has been trying to mold,” Abbey said. “Eli is someone he has definitely taken a special interest in over the last two years. After Eli scored that goal, that is the celebration that Eli did. It seemed like a fitting tribute for Nick’s last assist for Eli to replicate his goal celebration. That is one of my favorite things about the kids in my program … they care about the legacy that they leave behind. Nick is definitely leaving this program in a very good spot because of the hard work he’s done.”

Of course, by scoring 30 goals in three seasons, Golando has proven himself to be much more than just a setup man.

In the midst of a hard-fought semifinal contest on the road against Ellicottville, he would send home penalty kick in the 59th minute that would ultimately prove to be the game winner.

In the previous game, Golando would score a pair to catalyze a 5-0 win over Westfield/Brocton.

Whatever Abbey has needed in the midfield these last three years, Golando has been the go-to-guy.

“His ninth-grade year we lost two center-mids that graduated,” Abbey said. “I had a lot of reshuffling to do that year, for Nick’s sophomore year. I wasn’t quite sure what the lineup would be. We had to shift our formation completely, because you just had different kids with different talents. Nick was definitely a major piece of that puzzle. He’s been starting in his center-mid position since that formation was created when he was a sophomore.”

Aiding his success have also been the midfielders playing alongside Golando. Teammates like Brendan Hirliman, Alex MacCallum and Adam Marsh, who has taken on more of a defensive mindset.

“Because Adam is more defensive it allows Nick to not worry about that as much,” Abbey said. “He knows Adam can hold down the fort back there.”