Florida State edged Central Florida to inch a little closer to the top of Florida's DIAA College Conference.
Two games this weekend in Florida ended up 29-27, which is a little strange. One of those was FSU's victory over UCF, bumping the Seminoles to 2-2 and seeing UCF drop to 2-3.
"FSU played well," said UCF Head Coach Evan Haigh. "But ultimately it is our own continued mistakes that continue to cost us this season. Our discipline was also awful; we we were penalized 13 to 3 in this game so we must get a lot better before we take on the undefeated usf next week, which is our final game."
Anthony Drabek led the defensive effort from Central Florida and captain Mark Carvajal ran a potent attack, but those penalties hurt.
For Florida State, this was an improvement.
"Not sure if we're doing anything better," said FSU Head Coach Michael Gomez. "We haven't responded to adversity well this year. Every time we score we let the other team score rather than keep pressure on. I think we're doing a good job of putting kids in tough situations and having them grow."
A large chunk of the FSU starting 15 were freshmen, so they have some learning to do for sure. Gomez said the talent coming up should light a spark under the older players.
The teams traded tries back and forth throughout the game. Two tries from Sam Williams put FSU in a solid position at 17-7 early in the second half, but Jack Puchalski inched UCF closer at 17-12. Darrett Dollinger answered for the Seminoles only to see Jeremiah Birch's try, converted by Caleb Goertzen, keep pace. Now it was 24-19 for FSU. The final 10 minutes were dramatic as Matthew Aldersom went over for UCF, and Goertzen then added a penalty goal for a 27-24 UCF lead. But as time was winding down Aamir Taariq was over for the game-winner.
