Swashbuckling Brendan Staub Always a Spark for Cornell

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Cornell needed a spark in Saturday’s NCAA semifinals that Brendan Staub was only too happy to provide.

The defenseman — or is he the Big Red’s musketeer? — accepted a pass from Michael Long on the secondary break, took a couple strides, crow-hopped and then cranked in the first goal of the second half against Penn State.

Then, to add some flair to the proceedings, Staub shoved the shaft of his stick through his grasp, perfectly pantomiming a sword getting stuffed into its sheath.

“I always got chirped a little bit by guys on the team for not having good celebrations when I score goals,” Staub said Sunday. “I tended to just freak out and not doing anything cool. [Long-stick midfielder] Walker Wallace last year did that after he scored a goal, so I was thinking I would just imitate him.”

While the celebration may have originated elsewhere, Staub is putting it to use this month. He has scored in consecutive games for the first time in his career with top-seeded Cornell (17-1), which will aim for its first national title since 1977 when it meets second-seeded Maryland (14-3) in Monday’s national title game at Gillette Stadium.

As much attention the Big Red’s explosive offense generates, Cornell’s defense has enjoyed a strong tournament to date. The Big Red limited UAlbany to six goals in the first round, then held off Richmond 13-12 in a matchup of similar teams.

Then came Saturday’s 11-9 defeat of Penn State, the sort of grind-it-out effort several generations of Cornell teams have specialized in. Beyond the spark on offense, Staub also helped limit Penn State attackman Kyle Lehman to a goal on three shots.

“Definitely an underrated player,” Cornell defenseman Jayson Singer said. “He doesn’t get the props that he deserves. I like to say he does all the little things that maybe defensively aren’t the first things you look at, but he’s picking the ball up. He’s running the floor. He’s talking on defense, he’s making plays. He’s really vital to our success and very important to our team and specifically our defense.”

But the boost to the offense helps, too. Staub said one of the priorities each game is to prevent opponents from getting a jolt from scoring in transition. Much the same thing happens for Cornell when one of its poles find the net.

Staub’s done it nine times, thrice in each year of his career. All three of his goals this season have come early in the second half, starting with one in a blowout of Penn. He helped Cornell climb back into its quarterfinal against Richmond after the Spiders went ahead by three.

The relative (for a defenseman) flurry of offense is enough to prompt some curiosity about whether finding those transition opportunities is a sudden priority. Staub wryly noted he’s averaged almost a shot a game; a few more just happened to have fallen lately.

Nonetheless, the potential for offense is there, and Staub’s teammates at the other end of the field have noticed.

“Whenever Brendan is winding up, it’s definitely going to be a juice goal,” midfielder Hugh Kelleher said. “It’s great for the offense, too. It gives us the confidence and the momentum shift to keep going and find our stride offensively.”

Perhaps the most remarkable part of Staub’s tally Saturday is that it arguably wasn’t his most impressive offensive play. Later in the third quarter, he found himself in a similar spot, only to feint a shot and thread a pass from the restraining line to Ryan Goldstein on the doorstep for a goal that gave Cornell its first multi-goal lead at 8-6.

While Singer was partial to Staub’s goal and the swashbuckling celebration that ensured, Staub was a little more impressed with the assist that gave him his first career multi-point game.

“As someone with 16 shots, it’s good to show I’m a little unselfish,” Staub deadpanned.

He means more to the Big Red beyond transition offense, of course, and he’s likely to be tasked with defending one of Maryland’s three 30-goal scorers (Braden Erksa, Daniel Kelly and Eric Spanos) in Monday’s final.

His total value goes well beyond the modest recognition he’s received, which includes an honorable mention all-Ivy nod this spring.

“Brendan does so much so well for us,” Cornell coach Connor Buczek said. “Guarding the ball, picking up ground balls, being poised in the clear, creating offense and recognizing opportunities to be aggressive. He’s an All-American, and I think that was a miss out on the country to not give him an All-American award this year.”