Brandon Allen has scored 25 goals for New York Red Bulls II in all competitions

Brandon Allen scored two goal for New York Red Bulls II on Saturday, May 6, 2017. Both were penalty kicks, and each was important to his team's 3-1 win over Harrisburg City Islanders.

The pair of PKs seem a fitting way for Allen to reach the latest landmark in his pro career. Brandon Allen scores goals, and goals win games. The blessing and curse of being Brandon Allen is that he makes scoring goals look easy, and penalties are considered close to the easiest scoring opportunities available. It is appropriate then that those PKs carried Allen to 25 goals in all competitions for NYRB II.

Allen set the single-season and career scoring records for NYRB II last season, in his first year as a pro: 15 goals in the regular season; six in the playoffs; 21 in total. In 2017, he has scored four for the II team in six appearances to date - further extending his career scoring record for the Red Bulls' reserves.

Twenty-five goals isn't an exceptional career total, though it is remarkable that Allen reached the landmark in just his 37th appearance for NYRB II. It's unlikely, however, that even he is particularly impressed by the total: he twice scored more than 25 goals in a single season for the RBNY Academy, and he scored 50 in his college career.

In the particular context of the New York Red Bulls, however, 25 goals is more significant than it might be at many other clubs: if he'd been scoring his goals for the first team, Allen would already have cracked the RBNY all-time top 10 goal scoring list.

As it stands, he has played seven minutes in total for RBNY's first team, and has yet to record a goal for the club at that level.

But the 23-year-old has used his time in the reserves doing what it seems he knows how to do best: scoring goals and setting records. He left his high school (St. Joseph in Metuchen, NJ) and college (Georgetown) as the all-time highest scorer, and it seems very likely he's the all-time record scorer for the first pro team he played for - NYRB II.

Congrats on 25 goals as a pro, Brandon. See you at the next milestone.