Buczek, Kirst Help Cornell Break 48-Year Title Drought

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — CJ Kirst and Cornell’s senior class made the most of their last chance.

Kirst scored six goals and tacked on an assist to earn most outstanding player honors for the NCAA tournament Monday as he capped his decorated career with his most coveted laurel: Helping the Big Red win their first national title since 1977.

Ryan Goldstein added four goals and Wyatt Knust made 12 saves as top-seeded Cornell never trailed in a 13-10 victory over second-seeded Maryland before 32,512 at Gillette Stadium — the highest attendance since 2011.

“They had a mission, they had a goal, and every single day they showed up to work,” Cornell coach Connor Buczek said. “They didn’t know when the margins were going to change. They didn’t know what day would help us separate, but they were a resilient group. They were a tough group. They led one another. The leadership was within, and when you have as many leaders as we have on this team, the ceiling is really incredibly high.”

It turns out it’s the highest it’s been for Cornell (18-1) since its back-to-back title runs in the mid-1970s, a stretch when the Big Red ran the sport and ripped off a 42-game winning streak that remains unmatched in Division I history.

Kirst, coming off the only pointless outing in his 67-game college career, didn’t get going until late in the first half against the Terrapins (14-4) and then didn’t slow down until his empty-netter with 50 seconds to play.

Along the way, he became the first player with six goals and seven points in a national title game since Johns Hopkins’ Paul Rabil did both in 2008, and he matched the Division I single-season record for goals in a season with 82. He shares it with Yale’s Jon Reese (1990) and Albany’s Miles Thompson (2014).

“If you have a guy that can put you on his back, and you look at all the championship teams, not every team has one, but you have a decided advantage when you have that guy to pull you through,” Maryland coach John Tillman said. “CJ’s been that guy. He just has all year.”

Eric Spanos had two goals and two assists for the Terps, who fell on Memorial Day for the second consecutive season. Spanos finished the tournament with 17 points, tied with Kirst and Cornell’s Michael Long for the most in this postseason.

It appeared for the first half Cornell would have make do without the peak version of Kirst, and it was a tribute to the Big Red’s depth and ability that it didn’t entirely matter. Cornell traded goals with Maryland for the first 22 minutes then finally created a little separation with consecutive scores by Andrew Dalton and Goldstein to go up 5-3.

Kirst wouldn’t score until 1:49 remained in the first half, and the Big Red led 6-5 at the break of a game that began predictably plodding but started to speed up in the second quarter.

Then Kirst opened the second half with consecutive goals, and a Maryland team so adept at playing from ahead suddenly had a steeper task.

“With a quick turnaround from playing Saturday to competing today, there’s not much scout that goes into,” Kirst said. “It’s all confidence and belief in your group. In the second half, we were all talking about how we just had to play our game. We had to draw slides and if we didn’t, we had to be able to put the ball in the back of the net.”

The Terps had one push in them, scoring consecutive goals for the only time all day. Elijah Stobaugh got Maryland within 10-9 with 9:23 to go, and the Terps won the ensuing possession.

Knust then stymied a Spanos shot, and Maryland promptly failed a clear after wresting possession back at the other end. Kirst got his fifth goal of the day shortly thereafter to restore a two-goal advantage.

“We brought it in after they scored those two goals in the fourth and just knew we needed to up our communication, play more aggressive, get out and get on their hands, and I think we really brought it to them in those final possessions,” Knust said.

The closing moments were more symbolic than climactic. Kirst matched the single-season mark to nudge his career total to 247, well beyond the 224 amassed by former record-holder Payton Cormier of Virginia. And Kirst was the one to raise the championship trophy in front of the vibrant Cornell section, which was part of the largest NCAA title game crowd since 2011.

The Cornell seniors, many of whom originally matriculated in the fall of 2020 and didn’t have a chance to play in what would have been their freshman year because the Ivy League sat out virtually the entire 2020-21 academic year, were part of the Big Red team that scrapped its way to the national final in 2022 as a No. 7 seed.

They were unfortunate enough to run into Maryland’s loaded, undefeated team, one that pounced early and then fended off the Big Red 9-7. Better times figured to lie ahead, but Cornell fell at home in the first round to Michigan in 2023 and then missed the postseason altogether after losing to Penn in the Ivy League semifinals.

This was the last chance for Cornell, and it showed only occasional vulnerability from the start. Only four times did the Big Red trail after the start of the third quarter. Only against Richmond on March 2, when Cornell scored the last four goals to win 12-11, did Buczek’s team face a hole of more than one goal in the final period.

And in the end, Cornell joined 1983 and 2008 Syracuse, 2012 Loyola and 2023 Notre Dame as the only teams to win a title the year after missing the tournament.

“They were, over the course of the year, the best team,” Tillman said. “They just were, and they showed it today. They played like a bunch of guys that came back for a purpose, motivated. A lot of those guys, we played against in ’22. They’re all grown up. They reminded me of our ’22 team in a lot of ways.”

That team had its share of veterans, a Tewaaraton winner (Logan Wisnauskas) as the top option on an offense that also featured a mix of other Maryland mainstays (among them, Anthony DeMaio and Kyle Long) and transfers (Keegan Khan and Cornell grad transfer Jonathan Donville).

The Big Red’s starring cast was entirely home grown, with Kirst the centerpiece and a figure who entered the season with a one-track aim to finish the season as a national champion.

The ensuing convergence of ability, incentive and maintaining it for a full year led to Monday.

“He’s a difference maker,” Buczek said. “He is the best player in the country, and it’s not always the points, it’s not always the goals, it’s not always the assists. It’s how hard he competes. It’s how much he gets out of his teammates. It’s how well-liked he is because of the respect he’s earned within that room, so when he gets going, we’re a different team. He found it in the biggest moment at the biggest time and pushed us over the hump and earned this national championship for our team.”

The last time the Big Red hauled a title trophy home, the late Eamon McEneaney was the program’s luminous star. It was only a year after Mike French, the Big Red legend who held the school’s career scoring record until earlier this season, was a major part of another title.

And now Kirst is further bonded to those greats, a statistical marvel and now a national champion to bring an end to Cornell’s nearly half-century title drought.

“You dream about those attackmen, Mike French, Rob Pannell, all the people who have put on the jersey, to be able to hug Mike French after the semifinal game and to get motivational words from Eamon’s teammate, you want to do it for them. Special feeling and super happy that we were able to get it done.”