Heading into Saturday’s match with Princeton, senior attackman CJ Kirst was on the cusp of history. Two goals in a heartbreaker loss to Penn State the week before had put him three shy of the record 191 set by Mike French ’76, and the Ivy League opener against then-No. 2 Princeton was the perfect stage.
Minutes into the first period, Kirst found the back of the net for the first time. In the second, he claimed two more. His fourth goal, off an assist from sophomore attackman Ryan Goldman, sealed his spot in the record books.
A grand total of five goals and seven points made Kirst the school’s highest scorer of all time, sitting at an impressive 193 goals. To cap off the achievement, No 4/3 Cornell (5-1) took a definitive 15-10 win over No. 6 Princeton (4-2) on home turf.
Though the Tigers were first on the board, the Red fired back off the sticks of senior midfielder Ryan Sheehan and Goldstein for an early 2-1 edge. Then, the Tiger’s Tucker Wade snuck the next past senior goalkeeper Wyatt Knust.
The Red took that personally. Junior faceoff and midfield Jack Cascadden won the ensuing faceoff, carrying the ball into Tiger territory before offloading to Kirst for his first goal of the game.
Cornell scored twice more before the end of the first quarter, with both senior attackman Michael Long and sophomore attackman Willem Firth tallying their 10th goals of the season. The momentum continued after the break, with Kirst netting two in a row to tie the school record.
Princeton took over for a four-goal run, two of which came from Coulter Mackesy, who, like Kirst, tops his school’s list for all-time scoring. The Red’s lead narrowed to 7-6 before sophomore attackman Ryan Waldman eased the tension with an unassisted shot past Ryan Croddick.
Cornell couldn’t shake Princeton in the third, which echoed the rivalry’s typical closeness as the teams traded goals to enter the final quarter 11-9. The endgame, though, has been where the Red shines.
After Kirst assisted Long in his second goal of the game, Cascadden took the next faceoff on a violation by Princeton’s Andrew McMeekin. Senior midfielder Hugh Kelleher fed the ball to Kirst for his last of the match.
A few minutes later, déjà vú: Kelleher scored, the faceoff went to Cascadden, and senior midfielder Andrew Dalton buried it. Now up 15-9, Cornell hunkered down to defend for the final eight minutes.
Just outside the final minute, Sean Cameron took advantage of a turnover to score for the Tigers, but the last-ditch effort wasn’t enough. The Red took its fifth game of the season, and first in Ivy play, by a five-goal margin.
Cornell’s characteristically brutal offense fired 51 shots opposed to Princeton’s 35, almost perfectly dispersed throughout the game. Kirst, named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week in three of the last four weeks, led the team with 7 points, while Firth contributed two goals and two assists. Goldstein, Kelleher and Long each recorded three points.
Cascadden, who had struggled to remain consistent in the season’s opening matches, took 13 of 23 faceoffs as a crucial part of the attack. He also picked up a team-high five ground balls.
Despite taking 10 shots, Mackesy finished just two successful scoring attempts, his only points of the day.
With a conference and top-10 victory in the books, the Red next heads to New Haven to take on Yale. The game is set for 1 p.m. Saturday, and fans can catch the action live on ESPN+.
