During the summer, Morgan Heffelfinger decided to take the advice of his friends and give soccer a try.

Granted, Heffelfinger is a senior basketball player at Northampton and has never played any organized soccer in his way. It would be a venture with plenty of mental and physical challenges ahead.

To heighten the situation, Heffelfinger would stake over in the nets for the Konkrete Kids on a team that likely would make a strong run at districts this year.

Seems easy to say that the experiment has been a success. The Kids (13-7) began district play as the fourth-seed in the Class 4A bracket and met fifth-seeded Emmaus, a result that was a 4-0 loss. But Heffelfinger is a big part of how the Kids made the postseason.

“He (Heffelfinger) has really adjusted well,” said head coach Adam Bastidas. “We weren’t sure who was going to play goalie for us this year and Morgan has done the job for us.”

Heffelfinger felt comfortable with his position this year, but it truly was a learning process. He recorded consecutive shutouts to open the season and had five through the year with 58 saves.

“My friends who play soccer told me that they needed a goalie,” said the 6-foot-3 Heffelfinger. “I was skeptical at first and didn’t know if I would like it. Over the summer, I went to the workouts and then I thought that I could do this.

“When I started, I was nervous and figuring out how to react to everything. But the coaching staff and the rest of the players really helped me along. They all made things a lot easier.”

Heffelfinger finally reached his comfort zone in a 2-0 win over Nazareth on Sept. 15 that began an eight-game winning streak for the Kids and flipped the season in a positive direction.

“We had a three-game losing streak coming into that game,” recalled Heffelfinger. “If we lost that game, our season could have gone off the rails. I was proud to make some good saves and I felt like a leader out there. Coach (Bastidas) told me and the team that I had played well and made some big saves. That game gave me confidence.”

Heffelfinger stated that the mental part of the game was the biggest adjustment.

“It a tough thing to give up a goal,” he said. “I had to work to just let it go and not worry about it. I knew our offense could come back and score some goals. Everyone was very supportive.”

Physically, Heffelfinger has worked on improving his punting.

“When I started, I was kicking the ball all over the place,” he said. “But it seems like I am always moving all over the place. It is physically demanding and I knew I had to have a lot of endurance to play the game.”

Heffelfinger is in the process of selecting a college and Drexel, Lehigh, Pitt, Temple, and North Carolina State are on his list.