Geneva senior Caleb Kelly has always been inspired by his mother whenever it comes to soccer.

And it’s for good reason too. His mom, Laurie, was a two-time All-American as a high schooler and led St. Charles East to three state titles during that time. Her 115 career goals scored is a school record that’s been untouched for 30 years.

That knack for finding the back of the net was passed down to Caleb Kelly. And in his senior season, he showed it in full force.

“She was just an amazing player on the field,” Kelly said, “and to even come close to her legacy feels unreal.”

In his final season, Kelly put up 23 goals and 7 assists, leading the Vikings to a 16-win season, the most in a season since 2009. He was also named an All-State honoree for his efforts.

And while he did finish his career a mere 73 goals away from his mom’s scoring record, he does get to share an similar accolade to her - being named the Kane County Chronicle boys soccer Player of the Year.

“We knew if we wanted to do something this year, then we we’re going to need someone who could score a lot of goals for us and lead that front line,” Vikings coach Jason Bhatta said. “Caleb grew into that player in a great way. He added a lot of depth to his game that made him a lot more dynamic and unpredictable as a player.”

Coming off of a junior season where he led the team with 17 goals and led the Vikings to an appearance in a sectional title game, Kelly knew that he had to make some improvements if he wanted to make it even further in his final season.

So shortly after the offseason began, he sat down with fellow returners Ben Murphy and Chase Marquardt to discuss getting further into the playoffs.

“We knew that we were going to have to step it up if we wanted to compete at the same level,” Kelly said. “I just spent a lot of time in the offseason on the field. I remember spending countless hours with Chase working on our set pieces, which we got a lot of success off of.”

While the Vikings couldn’t mirror the same postseason success from the year prior after losing to Streamwood in the regional finals, the success on the field was still evident. Geneva finished the season with 75 goals over 24 games, only being held scoreless three times in that stretch.

And of those games, Kelly found the net in half of them, which included six multi-goal efforts and three hat tricks.

“I think he just truly showed the signs that he’s a true goal scorer,” Bhatta said. “His technical floor was raised from his junior to senior season. When you get older and more experienced, the game starts to get slower, and I think it shows through with his ability to score and seeing the field a bit better allowed him to be put in better situations to score.”

Bhatta said that even more impressive than Kelly’s scoring ability was his passing and defense. His seven assists were second-best on the team.

“He helped us a lot in build-up and getting us where we needed to go,” Bhatta said. “Caleb worked incredibly hard when we didn’t have the ball. We could press the way that we did when he pressed defenders in ways that you don’t often see from a forward. So he was equally as aggressive when we didn’t have the ball as when we did have the ball.”

Kelly ended his career with 42 goals for the Vikings, the fifth-most in program history. But even with the individual success, Kelly said he couldn’t have done it without his teammates or coaches.

“It’s been such a blessing,” Kelly said. “I could not have had the success that I had without the guys. I made so many tight bonds that I hope to keep, and we’ve been such a tight-knit group since elementary school. I used to play soccer with a lot of them on the playground and to be able to live out playing with them later on, it’s kind of surreal.”

And for Bhatta, who announced that he was stepping down as head coach following the end of the season, he couldn’t of been more proud that Kelly led the way in his final season.

“He was a great captain and led the guys really well,” Bhatta said. “From his sophomore to senior year, he worked incredibly hard and set a great example for everyone else to follow. And I think we’re just going to miss that presence going forward.”