Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin file photoMountain View’s Zach Emerson, right, scored 25 goals last season and is on pace to break the school’s all-time scoring record.

He is often referred to as “keeker” by coaches and teammates.

His kind is likened to pole vaulters and left-handed relief pitchers by Brian Crum. “They’re crazy,” the Mountain View football coach says. “Most kickers are just a LITTLE bit different. … You never know exactly what you’re going to get.”

Yet Zach Emerson is not like most “keekers.” He exhibits a calm demeanor around the field, whether he is on the sideline nursing cramps lingering from a soccer game just a few hours earlier or facing a 40-yard field goal with the first-half clock running out. That calm demeanor has earned the trust and confidence of the third-year Cougars coach. Perhaps with Emerson, the “keeker,” Crum knows EXACTLY what he’s going to get.

And as Mountain View boys soccer coach Jerry Jimenez can verify, last week was a prime example of what to expect of the standout soccer striker and football kicker.

“That’s well in Zach’s potential,” Jimenez says. “The kid’s a dominant player. There’s no question there. I’m not surprised. He’s a step ahead … he’s a foot taller and a step ahead of everybody else, pretty much. Other people watch him and comment how he’s a man among boys to some degree. Physically, he’s super talented. He’s pretty much the whole package when it comes down to it.”

Yet with nonchalance, adding a shrug for good measure, Emerson says: “It was just practice paying off, really. It was just a good week, finally.”

There’s that calm demeanor. Only Emerson, an all-Intermountain Conference kicker and two-time all-state soccer player, can downplay that four-day stretch he put together last week, a performance that comes as close as anything to a kicker’s version of perfection.

In two soccer matches, the junior striker and last season’s IMC player of the year totaled 11 goals and four assists — seven scores and four helpers in a contest last Tuesday, four goals in a match two days later. And on Friday night, the coup de grace, Emerson drilled 40- and 41-yard field goals (the latter, Crum insists, with enough leg to have been good from 55 yards out) in Mountain View’s 27-20 football victory at Summit. In that win, Emerson accounted for nine points, and with his punts and kickoffs he forced the Storm’s average starting field position to inside their own 20-yard line.

Emerson reflects on that stretch of four days. That nonchalance has lifted now. “Eleven goals in two games, that’s crazy,” he says. “And then to go in and hit two field goals from 40 (yards out) …”

“Usually, kickers don’t get too much credit. But … yeah, I don’t know.” Emerson continues. “Yeah, it was a huge week for me, definitely.”

Emerson’s size suggests — and Crum confirms — that Emerson is not your typical high school soccer player. At 6 feet 3 and 190 pounds, he is built more like a tight end. Strange to think, then, that Emerson first put on football pads late in his middle school years, as he says, “just to have fun, get another sport to play.”

His primary sport is soccer, which he began playing at age 5 and has gone on to play at state, regional and national levels. Yet Emerson continues to head to football practices each day for 45 minutes before bolting across the Mountain View campus to catch up with the soccer team. He is willing to sacrifice a few soccer matches in order to kick for the football Cougars on Friday nights.

Soccer is primary, Emerson emphasizes, but his soccer and football coaches have helped the junior work out a schedule that allows him to split time between both sports. Exhausting, sure. Just look at Emerson’s schedule from Sept. 12 and the following morning:

That Friday, 4 p.m., score once in a 3-1 home soccer win over Corvallis. Shortly after, hustle to Jack Harris Stadium, pull on a football uniform, speed through warm-ups and fight through cramps to make four extra-point kicks in a 46-30 win against Central. Ice bath that night to soothe bumps and bruises, return to the soccer field Saturday morning, score equalizing goal in 2-2 draw versus Crescent Valley.

“It’s definitely draining getting home late and still having to do homework and all the normal high school stuff,” says Emerson, who has 16 goals and six assists this soccer season on top of 18 extra-points and two field goals in football. “To balance two sports is hard, because I feel like I’m not getting enough of one, so then I go out on my own and put in extra work (to compensate).”

“It’s hard work,” Crum says. “You don’t see the fact that he’s a grinder. … Right now, the kids have complete confidence in him. And I think that’s the biggest thing is, Zach’s going to come out and do what he does, and that’s an ace in our pocket. That’s certainly a huge deal.”

Emerson the soccer player had already burst onto the national stage. And after attending several football camps during this past offseason, Emerson the “keeker” has been ranked by Kohl’s Kicking Camps as the No. 5 kicker in the high school graduating class of 2016. He has had conversations with college soccer and football coaches about playing at the next level. Obviously, Crum says, the choice is up to Emerson. But, Crum adds: “I really think he could kick (for a football team) in the Pac-12.”

As Crum is quick to point out, Emerson is not just a soccer player who doubles as a kicker for the football squad. Instead, Crum says, “He’s an athlete who comes and kicks.”

Emerson’s nonchalance has returned. He wonders if he deserves this spotlight even after such a prolific week as a soccer striker and football kicker.

“If a kicker has a good game, it’s good to get credit for it,” Emerson says. “But it’s about the team, really. That’s the determiner of each win.”

Emerson simply stands at the ready, he concludes, to do his job when called upon.

—Reporter: 541-383-0307, glucas@bendbulletin.com.