Beachler's bicycle kick goal gets national attention

As a kid, Westminster Christian alum Tyler Beachler enjoyed watching ESPN SportsCenter.

Recently, Beachler's friends and teammates enjoyed watching him on SportsCenter.

Beachler, now a senior forward on the Taylor University (Upland, Ind.) men's soccer team, made an appearance on the popular sports news broadcast as part of its “plays of the day” segment.

Beachler and freshman teammate Danny Cawley, a native of Manchester, England, pulled off the extremely rare feat of each scoring goals via bicycle kicks in Taylor's 4-0 victory over Mt. Vernon Nazarene.

“From the corner it was headed out,” explained Beachler. “It went behind me. I kind of saw it in the air and thought, ‘I may as well try a bike here and get it across and maybe something good could happen.' I didn't think it would go in. I was totally shocked seeing the ball in the goal while I was on the ground.”

Cawley later took the ball inside the 18-yard box and had a shot blocked by a defender back over his head. Cawley, according to Beachler, turned around and unleashed a bicycle kick. The opposing goalie had been out of the net and it went by him and into the net.

“You never see that happen (2 bicycle kicks for goals in one game),” said Beachler. “I was in total shock. I had tried bicycle kicks a few times in games, but I never would have imagined one would go in. I didn't know how to celebrate it. I was in total shock.”

Perfecting his bicycle kick has been an infrequent science for Beachler.

“It's not something you typically work on,” he said. “If there is a chance to do it in practice, I'll try it usually.”

Beachler, a finance major with a math minor at this school located 40 minutes south of Ft. Wayne and 90 minutes north of Indianapolis, was equally flabbergasted to learn his exploits were being shown to a national audience.

“Honestly, when I first heard about being on SportsCenter, I couldn't believe it,” he said. “I watched SportsCenter as a kid. Never in a million years did I think I would be on it. It was a surreal experience.”

Beachler is part of a Taylor team that was off to a 12-1-1 start. The team recently earned a No. 18 NAIA ranking.

Beachler recently recorded his 50th career goal, which also was his fourth-game winner of the season. That helped him earn Mid-Central College Conference offensive player of the week accolades. During the award period, Beachler had 3 goals and 2 assists in helping the squad continue its best start in school history.

Beachler's 50th career goal came in a 4-2 win at Spring Arbor. He added a goal and 2 assists against St. Francis, which brought his season totals to 12 goals and 8 assists. After the St. Francis game, Beachler was the league leader in assists. It was Beachler's second player of the week accolade this season.

“The strongest part of my game is probably just getting in good position to finish the ball,” said Beachler. “I'm making the right runs and am in the right place at the right time.”

But Beachler added his greatest improvement has nothing to do with scoring goals.

“Overall, I've gotten better at defensive play and defensive work rate,” he said. “Coach has been pushing me to get better at that. I like to think this year that he's been pretty pleased with that.”

The strong team start is something Beachler feels can be attributed to work habits.

“We have a bunch of great guys that have come together with a high work rate,” he said. “One of the biggest things I have noticed this season is that we have 25 guys on the team and after one practice I saw 18 guys stay after to work on stuff they need to get better at. When you have that many guys going the extra mile for their teammates, that's a sign of great guys capable of doing good things.”

While Beachler admitted the ESPN thing was gratifying, he was more thrilled about the fact the school earned some recognition on a national stage.

“I'm pleased the team and Taylor University got mentioned,” he said. “That's the second time in a year we've been on ESPN. Taylor was on ‘Around the Horn (a popular ESPN talk show)' for its tradition of Silent Night. Taylor getting this type of recognition is a pretty cool thing.”

Beachler has received plenty of calls from friends and family back home about the ESPN gig, but is glad it's behind him.

“A lot of people have congratulated me about it,” he said. “It's something I've never experienced before, but at the same time it's something that shouldn't be dwelled upon too much. We're in the middle of a successful season. We can't let something like that be the focus. It was a great and amazing experience, but we have games ahead of us to focus on.”

While Beachler has enjoyed a great run of individual success during his tenure at Taylor, he is more pleased about the progress the program has made in four short years.

“It's been pretty neat here and I've been pretty successful,” he said. “But what has been the most enjoyable for me is that freshman year we didn't have such a great record. It's been fun to see the progress of the program from that freshman year to now. We were eighth in conference my freshman year and now we're in first. That's a pretty big jump. That's been the most enjoyable experience during my time here.”

Video of the bicycle goal can be viewed by logging on to this article at dailyherald.com.

Orangier honored: Burlington Central alum Kayla Oranger was recently named to the 2010-2011 National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division I All-America scholar athlete list for a second year in a row. Oranger and her Texas-El Paso teammates also earned a spot on the 2010-2011 NFCA Division I all-academic team list. Oranger is a junior on the UTEP women's softball team. As a sophomore in 2011, Oranger hit .250 in 49 games. She had 37 hits and sported a .950 fielding percentage in 159 total chances.

Off at College wants your help: Send information and/or statistics on Fox Valley area athletes playing collegiately to Mike Miazga at difibulator@aol.com.