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No. 4 Florida Overcomes Georgia Tech 6-2 in Opening Round of National Collegiate Club Championship
ATHENS, Ohio -- Travis Catron (So., Orlando, Fla.) made seven saves to earn Player of the Game honors as No. 4 nationally ranked the University of Florida upended the Georgia Institute of Technology 6-2 in the opening round of the 2008 National Collegiate Club Championship on the campus of Ohio University.
In a game marked by 16 saves between Catron and Georgia Tech netminder Steve Larson (Fr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.), offense was at a premium as the Gators opened up a 2-0 lead in the waning moments of the first period and managed to outlast the Ramblin' Wreck for the remaining 21 minutes of play.
Patrick Topps (Sr., Orlando, Fla.) put Florida on top to stay with 2:56 left in the first period as he found the back of the cage with a rising shot for the first goal of the game. The lead increased to 2-0 and fell to 2-1 in less than two minutes as Florida's Jarrod Bonsmann (Gr., Orlando, Fla.) beat Larson at the 2:16 mark, but Catron failed to stop a shot by Tech's Logan McLeod (Gr., Santa Barbara, Calif.) with 58 seconds left in the period to set the score at 2-1 following seven minutes of play.
The teams traded goals to open the second period with the Gators jumping ahead 3-1 on a marker by Topps at 5:51 for the eventual game-winner, but Georgia Tech answered at 3:51 with a tally by Chris Bauerlein (So., Miami, Fla.) to pull the Yellow Jackets back to within one score at 3-2.
Florida began to pull away with 2:02 left in the first half as Brent Moser (Sr., Lake Mary, Fla.) popped a shot up and over the outstretched arms of Larson to put the Gators ahead 4-2 at halftime.
Neither team could muster much offense in the second half as Catron and Larson took over the game to stiffle both offenses.
Moser and Cody Smith (Jr., Orlando, Fla.) were the only players to manage markers in the half as the pair pumped in scores with 3:28 left in the third period and 58 seconds remaining in the fourth period for the 6-2 final.
The result sends the Gators and Yellow Jackets onto the next round with games on different days as Florida advances to face the University of Illinois-Chicago, which defeated Duke University 10-6 in earlier action, at 12:30 p.m. on November 15.
Georgia Tech will meet the Duke Blue Devils at 7:30 p.m. on November 14 in the third of four consolation games scheduled to wrap-up the first day of competition at the championship. The winners and losers of the consolation round will then advance onto Saturday to play in the third round.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| University of Florida | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
Florida Goals: Patrick Topps (2); Brent Moser (2); Jarrod Bonsmann; Cody Smith
Georgia Tech Goals: Logan McLeod; Chris Bauerlein
Saves: Florida - Travis Catron (7) ; Georgia Tech - Steve Larson (9)
Ejections: Florida - 4 ; Georgia Tech - 2
Sprints: Florida - 3 (1st, 2nd & 3rd) ; Georgia Tech - 1 (4th)
