ADAMS TWP — In Caleb Brake's words, the news was “awesome.”

It was unexpected as well.

Mars' senior placekicker-punter was recently named first team Class 4A all-state by the Pennsylvania Football News.

“No way was I expecting this,” he said. “I only made three field goals the whole year. It's very humbling ... definitely a huge honor.”

And a fitting honor as well — since Brake came up huge for the Planets on many occasions over the past three seasons.

“He definitely deserves this,” Mars football coach Scott Heinauer said. “Caleb is so dependable. We always knew we could count on him.

“I remember when he kicked the game-winning (39-yard) field goal on the last play at Blackhawk. Their coach called timeout before the kick. I told Caleb they were trying to rattle him. He laughed, then drilled it right down the middle.

“That's the kind of kid he is,” Heinauer added.

Besides hitting all three of his field goal attempts his senior season, Brake connected on 42 of 43 PATs. He made good on 14 of 19 field goal efforts, 123 of 132 PATs over the past three years.

“That's not very many misses,” Heinauer said. “Add to that the fact he plays soccer and the success rate is even more impressive.”

Brake never kicked a football at all until seventh grade. Alex Tumminello, a lineman on the junior high team, also served as its kicker. He was injured in the first game of the season.

The team had no other kicker on the roster.

“They needed someone and I figured I'd give it a try,” Brake said.

He's been a football kicker ever since, along with being a defender on the Mars soccer team.

Playing soccer cut into Brake's available time to practice with the football team. When he did, it was generally before a soccer game.

“We usually played at night, so I'd come to football practice for an hour or so before the soccer game,” Brake said. “If it was a road soccer game, I'd have to leave practice even earlier to catch the bus.

“If I got two hours of football practice in a week, I was lucky. It wasn't the ideal situation, but we made it work.”

Heinauer structured certain special teams drills based on “when Caleb was there. We worked around his soccer schedule.”

Now Brake's collegiate sport of choice is football. He's looking at Colgate and Holy Cross in the Patriot League. Division II schools Mercyhurst and West Liberty (W.Va.) are expressing interest as well.

“Kickers always have to wait to see who has what scholarship money left over and what teams are in need of a kicker,” Heinauer said. “He'll land somewhere.”

Brake would become the second consecutive Mars kicker to play in college. Matt White — a senior with the Planets when Brake was a freshman — is kicking at Monmouth and was named FCS National Special Teams Player of the Week a season ago.

Both are coached by Mike Baumgartel, a Mars graduate who kicked for Cornell and was inducted into the Mars Athletic Hall of Fame a few months ago.

“Mike's been great. He's helped me in every phase of my kicking,” Brake said. “We've worked on kickoff technique, field goals ... He totally reinvented me as a punter. When I started out, my punting was terrible.”

Brake averaged 35.2 yards per punt last season with a long of 48.

With the exception of soccer season, Brake practices his craft on his own five days a week. A typical practice session consists of 30 punts, 15 kickoffs and 25 to 30 field goal attempts.

“It can be a grind, but if you want to be a good kicker, you have to go through it,” Brake said. “Repetition, repetition, repetition. That's what it's all about.”