Dooley Gives 'Boiardi-Like' Effort on 20th Anniversary of George Boiardi's Death

The first goal of any player’s career is significant, but it would be hard for anyone to top Matt Dooley’s first score.

After Kyle Smith’s picked up a ground ball, Dooley — Cornell’s sophomore long-stick midfielder — raced down the field and fired in the game-winner with 1.9 seconds left in regulation to give the Big Red a 15-14 win at Princeton on Sunday. Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of the death of former Cornell defenseman George Boiardi, who was killed by a shot he blocked against Binghamton.

“To come right before the buzzer, to give us a win against an Ivy League opponent on St. George’s Day in honor of George Boiardi, it was just such a special moment,” Dooley said. “I’m going to remember it. I can’t stop watching it. It’s so surreal and something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

🚨 MATT DOOLEY POLE GOAL BUZZER-BEATER 🚨@CornellLacrosse SURVIVES A THRILLER AGAINST @TigerLacrosse. pic.twitter.com/04PdTLrRmd

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) March 17, 2024

In their hotel that morning, the team gathered to watch a documentary of Boiardi’s life made by some of his former teammates. Watching it on the anniversary of his death has become a tradition under head coach Connor Buczek, who also played for Cornell.

“It’s really, really special,” Dooley said. “It touches the hearts of all of us, and it reminds us why we do what we do every single day. It’s really cool.”

Not a day goes by that the team isn’t reminded of Boiardi’s legacy of hard work, selflessness and joy for the game. His No. 21 jersey is retired, and his locker remains unassigned in tribute. The Mario St. George Boiardi Foundation acknowledges Boiardi’s passion for helping others. The foundation supports the growth of young people through funds raised at a variety of events like the 21 Run, as well as proceeds from sales of the book “The Hard Hat” by Cornell alum Jon Gordon.

Boiardi and the program are forever connected. Gordon once told a reporter about the connection: “It goes beyond the physical; it’s a very spiritual thing that none of us can explain.”

“Twenty years is a while, and there’s been a lot of turnover in our program, but certainly the consistent piece has been George is a cornerstone of our culture and the type of men and type of competitors that we want to be,” Buczek said. “It’s pretty cool for us, for every Cornell lacrosse player that’s come through this program since George’s passing to have a form of a relationship with George although they’ve never known George and although they never got the opportunity to meet George, but his legacy lives on and is strong.”

Buczek feels it, even though he’s a 2015 graduate who played after Boiardi. Gordon feels it, even though he graduated in 1993, almost a decade before Boiardi played. Dooley started to get a sense of it while still playing for Salisbury School (Conn.).

“I picked up on that before I even stepped on campus, just going through the recruiting process,” he said. “It’s such a huge part of our tradition and culture here. I read ‘The Hard Hat’ right after I committed. So, I had a sense of what it was like, but the first day in the locker room, you have George Boiardi’s plaque right outside the locker room. Every time we go in and out of the locker room, we give it a tap, and it’s just a reminder every single day of why we do what we do.”

The significance of a defenseman scoring the game-winner Sunday was not lost on the Big Red. After they had time to settle down from the euphoria of the last-second win, it settled in how perfect it was.

“Certainly, a defenseman being ready for the moment and being prepared from everything that he’s done up to that moment to finish it, certainly we had someone special looking down on us and looking out for us,” Buczek said. “Across the board — the ride and the way it finished — in so many facets, that was a George-like effort by a lot of guys on our team.”

The win put the Big Red back on track after a lopsided loss at Penn State and helped them to start the Ivy League schedule with a road win. The Big Red hosts Yale on Saturday before a trip to Penn on March 30. The narrow win at Princeton echoed that of the 12-11 overtime win at Princeton in 2004, barely a month after Boiardi’s passing. Four of Cornell’s five Ivy wins in 2004 came by a single goal.

“After the game, I was talking to a former teammate of his, and he actually sent me the video of that OT win,” Dooley said. “It says a lot about the culture and tradition surrounding George and of Cornell lacrosse. It was an awesome moment.”

One that Dooley wasn’t expecting. He estimates maybe scoring a half-dozen times in high school, but he hadn’t even taken a shot in college. But after a Princeton timeout with 33 seconds left, Cornell defensive coordinator Jordan Stevens switched to a zone. Luke Gilmartin caused a turnover on a pass that Smith, a high school teammate of Dooley’s, scooped and flipped to him.

“I knew he was picking that thing up,” Dooley said. “I knew there were 10 seconds on the clock and to get up the field. He gave me the ball, and as I was running down — we run through those drills all the time in practice — so I was waiting for the point defenseman to draw him and for him to come to me and then dish it off to Mikey (Long) on the wing. I took a glance, he wasn’t moving and then I saw open space. I was like, ‘I’ve got to take this shot.’ I went for it.”

Dooley wouldn’t have been surprised if Cornell had called timeout before he had the chance to shoot. Buczek had discussed that option in the prior timeout along with what eventually played out.

“That was an instinctive play by those guys to get up the field and push the rush, and obviously stay onsides with Dooley being a close defenseman,” Buczek said. “It was just a well-executed change of possession getting out and up and reading the situation and making the right play.”

After shooting, Dooley fell to the turf and didn’t know the shot had gone in until teammates piled on him. He made the most of a rare moment to shoot.

Dooley finished with as many goals as CJ Kirst, who was limited by the Princeton defense. Hugh Kelleher had a hat trick, and Spencer Wertheim assisted on four goals, but the team’s leading scorer Saturday was Ryan Goldstein. The freshman son of Hall of Fame Cornell attackman Tim Goldstein made his debut with three goals and two assists off the bench to help bring the Big Red back to a 14-14 tie with 5:20 left.

“He’s a great lacrosse player,” Buczek said. “He brings a lot to the table. For us, he’s been a little banged up in practice and so he’s missed a couple weeks, but really has done a great job for being a young guy of stepping in in a big moment and making the most of his opportunity.”

But in the end, it wasn’t an offensive player that won the game. Dooley, an unsung defenseman who continues to develop in his first year starting, couldn’t have picked a more appropriate time to come up with his first career goal.

“That was really the motivation for the day, to just go out there and play with George Boiardi-like effort, with energy and enthusiasm, toughness, competitiveness,” Dooley said. “We’re really input focused, so if we take care of the inputs, then we know it’s all going to work out in the end. That’s really all we can control. He was in the back of all our minds throughout the game.”