No. 17 University of Colorado Holds Off Florida State University, 16-9, in Final Game on Day One of the 2024 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Benjamin Budic (Sr., San Diego, Calif.) scored four times to garner Player of the Game status as Rocky Mountain Division Champion/No. 17-ranked the University of Colorado dominated Florida Division runner-up Florida State University with six goal outputs in the first and third quarters to overcome the Seminoles, 16-9, in the 12th and final game on Day One of the 2024 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by the University of Florida.
Competing at the Anne Marie Rogers Swimming & Diving Pool in the O’Connell Center, Colorado – which dropped a 15-14 contest in sudden death overtime to Atlantic Division Champion/No. 19 the University of Virginia earlier in the to slide into the consolation side of the 16-team championship bracket – will next be in action at 1:40 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, November 9, against Mid-Atlantic Division Champion/No. 14 Pennsylvania State University. A victory against the Nittany Lions will place the Buffaloes in the Ninth Place game on Sunday, November 10, at 2:15 p.m. Eastern, while a loss to the Keystone State squad puts Colorado in the 11th Place game at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.
Due to the loss, Florida State – which earlier fell to 2022 and 2023 National Champion/Southwest Division Champion/No. 1 the University of California-San Diego by an 18-4 score in the opening game of the championship weekend – will wrap-up its time in Tallahassee at 8:40 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, November 9, as the Seminoles will take on Southeast Division Champion/No. 20 the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in a 13th/15th place. Due to time constraints for the 16-team championship tournament, 13th-to-15th place are not played out. Rather, two games occur in which the victors are declared tied for 13th and the fallen tie for 15th place.
Colorado put the game against Florida State out of reach in the first quarter as the Buffaloes raced out to a 5-0 margin with 30 seconds left in the frame and held a 6-1 lead after seven minutes of action.
The lead fluctuated between four and six goals during the second quarter as both teams put up three markers to allow Colorado to enter halftime clutching a 9-4 lead.
However, the Buffaloes put any doubt about the contest’s eventual outcome to rest in the third quarter as the squad outscored FSU 6-2 to acquire a 15-6 spread entering the fourth quarter.
Florida State managed to chip away at Colorado’s lead in the closing seven minutes of competition by outscoring their foe 3-1 down the stretch to shrink the final deficit to 16-9.
For the Rocky Mountain Division champions, Budic (four), Ryan Bannon (Gr., Broomfield, Colo.) (three), Luke Shropshire (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.) (three) and Matteo Petty (So., Orinda, Calif.) (two) notched multi-goal games to combine for 12 of the Buffaloes’ 16 tallies. Tyler Patay (Fr., San Diego, Calif.), Ron Zamir (Fr., Palo Alto, Calif.), Chase King (Fr., Danville, Calif.) and Lachlan Nagel (Sr., Santa Cruz, Calif.) accounted for the remainder as the quartet each punched in solo strikes.
On the other end of the tank, Bennett Roberts (Jr., Orlando, Fla.), Samuel Perez (Sr, Oviedo, Fla.) and Thomas Young (So., Pasadena, Calif.) racked up pairs of goals for Florida State to accompany solo slashes by Skylar Klein (Gr., Lake Mary, Fla.), Andrew Jernigan (Jr., Apopka, Fla.) and Brady Howard (Fr., Mechanicsburg, Pa.).
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Florida State University |
1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | – | 9 |
| No. 17 University of Colorado | 6 | 3 | 6 | 1 | – | 16 |
| Colorado Goals: | Benjamin Budic (4); Ryan Bannon (3); Luke Shropshire (3); Matteo Petty (2); Tyler Patay; Ron Zamir; Chase King; Lachlan Nagel | |||||
| Florida State Goals: | Bennett Roberts (2); Samuel Perez (2); Thomas Young (2); Skylar Klein; Andrew Jernigan; Brady Howard | |||||
| Exclusions: | Colorado – 7 ; Florida State -12 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Colorado – 6-for-12 ; Florida State – 4-for-7 | |||||
| Sprints: | Colorado – 4-for-4; Florida State – 0-for-4 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | MV – Virginia (Ethan Dunnigan, 1:55 left in 4th Q) | |||||
| Officials: | Stephanie Villalobos, Jorge Villalobos | |||||
Florida State University’s Thomas Young (#12) looks down tank as the University of Colorado’s Benjamin Budic (#13) defends
Florida state University’s Samuel Perez (#6) weighs a pass as the University of Colorado’s Tyler Patay (#11) closes in
The University of Colorado’s Ron Zamir (#12)
