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Remember the Spartans?: Defending Champ No. 5 Michigan State Flusters No. 10 Florida 5-3 at National Collegiate Club Championship
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- On Friday the 13th at the University of Florida, Jason could not slay a legion of Spartans as the Jason Mammino (Fr., Winter Springs, Fla.) led all scorers with a hat-trick, but defending National Champion and No. 5-nationally ranked Michigan State University received tallies from four players to overcome No. 10 University of Florida 5-3 in the opening game of the 2009 Men's National Collegiate Club Championship.
MSU, which built a 4-0 halftime lead, held off a rampaging Mammino in the second half to hang on and remain in contention for this year's National Title. The Spartans will next play at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 14 against the victor of a first round game between No. 18 Yale University and No. 11 University of Texas.
Florida, which saw Michigan State cash in on three-of-four man-up opportunities for the difference in the game, will face the loser of the Texas-Yale game this evening at 9:50 p.m. in the final game on Day 1 of this year's tournament.
The Big Ten Division champion Spartans need just 2:09 to light-up the scoreboard as Mammino drew a penalty call to put an MSU player at five-meters with a chance to break the seal on this tournament's scoring.
Jake Marsh (So., Okemos, Mich.) converted on the opportunity with a whip that sailed past goalie Travis Catron (Jr., Orlando, Fla.) to put MSU ahead 1-0 with 4:51 left in the first period.
Michigan State would strike again with four minutes left in the second period and first half as Chase Plank (So., Rockford, Mich.) rifled a shot from seven-meters out to put the Spartans ahead 2-0. The goal ignited a mini-run by the Green & White as Marsh went to the upper right corner of the cage at the 1:51 mark on an advantage chance and Eddie Rogers (Jr., Beverly Hills, Mich.) rattled the pipes on another exclusion change with 16 seconds remaining on the period clock to give the Spartans a 4-0 lead at the break.
The shutout bid lasted just 1:26 into the second half as Mammino broke the ice for the Gators finishing a pass from Craig Blocher (Sr., Worthington, Ohio) at the 5:34 mark of the third period to pull their team to within 4-1.
Florida was able to slice the margin to a pair of tallies 57 seconds into the fourth period with a two-meter backhand by Mammino that found the orange twine in the back of the cage, but MSU cushioned the lead at the 5:24 mark as Nick Talaski (Jr., Rockford, Mich.) cleaned up a missed shot in front of the Florida cage, with the Gators defense in transition going up the pool on a counter attack, and buried the rebound to push Michigan State out to a 5-2 lead.
The Spartans defense did the rest yielding an exclusion goal bo Mammnio with 2:05 left on the game clock, but shutting down the rest of the Gators' scoring tries to hang on for the two goal victory.
In cage, Catron earned Player of the Game honors in the losing cause for Florida stopping 11 Michigan State shots, including four point-blank blasts, while MSU's Ben Shantz (Jr., Rockford, Mich.) swatted down five scoring tries.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -- | Final | |
| No. Michigan State University | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | -- | 5 |
| No. University of Florida | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -- | 3 |
Florida Goals: Jason Mammino (3)
MSU Goals: Jake Marsh (2); Nick Talaski; Chase Plank; Eddie Rogers
Saves: Florida - Travis Castron (11) ; MSU - Ben Shantz (5)
Exclusions: Florida - 4 ; MSU - 6
Advantage Opportunities: Florida - 1-for-6 ; MSU - 3-for-4
Sprints: Florida - 0-for-4; MSU - 4-for-4
