IN SEARCH OF NEW MEMORY
Can Cornwall top scoring winning goal in 2016?
Jeff Cornwall sparked pandemonium one spring night in 2016. He made 15,182 people go crazy — madmen, madwomen, madchildren.
His breakaway goal, with 12 seconds on the clock, gave the Saskatchewan Rush both an 11-10 win over the Buffalo Bandits, and the National Lacrosse League championship.
The SaskTel Centre blew up. And Cornwall etched his own lofty spot in Saskatchewan sports lore.
Then on Monday, Cornwall — also a substitute high school teacher back home in B.C. — walked into class, and discovered that news of his exploits hadn’t yet pierced those walls.
He was just Mr. Cornwall, schoolteacher. Such is life in the National Lacrosse League.
“It’s like I lead a double life,” Cornwall — whose Rush are back in the championship hunt — said Friday following a downtown rally.
“Back home, it’s like you’re Clark Kent, just day-to-day, with a 9-to5 job. Then on the weekends, you get to be a super hero every now and then.”
Cornwall, a transition/defender who had scored six times during last year’s regular season, said he’s sat down and watched the replay of that goal once by himself. He’s seen it a lot more, though — when he walks into an unfamiliar classroom, students will often Google his name, and up will pop that goal: The carom, the recovery, the swift-footed sprint, and the shot that ignited a fan base.
It’s not a moment he expects to top. All you can do, he said, is write a different story, with a different ending, and — if he’s the guy with the pen — the same outcome, in the end.
“Honestly,” he said. “The focus isn’t on topping any sort of event. The focus is on re-creating (that championship). And however we have to do it, that’s how we’ll do it. It doesn’t matter who’s the guy who gets a goal or who makes the big defensive stop. It’s just about the team, and moving forward as a group.”
The Rush are playing the Colorado Mammoth in the West Division final. Saskatchewan won last weekend’s opener in Denver, 18-9, in a game that saw them break open a tight affair with nine fourth-quarter goals.
Game 2 takes place Saturday in Saskatoon at 7:30 p.m. If the Rush win, they clinch the West Division title and move into the league final against either Georgia or Toronto. If they lose, the teams will immediately play a 10-minute mini game to decide who advances. Either way, the fate for both squads will be determined Saturday night.
The Rush have won two straight NLL championships, and Cornwall said things change once a team hits the post-season.
“In playoffs, everything ramps up,” he said.
“You change your diet a little bit. You’ll work out once or twice more a week. And the preparation goes through the roof. Everything elevates a little bit more. I have to thank my girlfriend for putting up with it, because she does deal with me being a little more high-strung. But I’m hoping to make it pay off.”
Rush players practised Friday in Saskatoon. Before that, they mingled with fans during a downtown rally — Hula-Hoop dancers, people on stilts, blaring music, the cheer squad, onlookers wearing Rush gear, and copious autographs and photos.
Defender Kyle Rubisch was on the floor with Cornwall during that clinching goal last season. You’ll see him in the replay, just to Cornwall’s left as he corralled the loose ball, trailing him all the way to the goal, then getting to him first, wrapping him up.
“I’ve seen (the replay) a bunch,” Rubisch said. “I haven’t watched it much this year, because it’s a new year, new goal, but right after it happened, I watched it a bunch and relived that great moment.
“There’s only five of us, and Boldy (goaltender Aaron Bold), on the floor. To be on the floor for a special moment that will go down in Rush history is something pretty cool.”
And on Saturday night, they’ll figure out if they get another crack at writing one more championship story. Last year’s title is a fond memory, said head coach Derek Keenan, but at this point, it’s also an old one.
“You kind of move on,” Keenan said simply.