Last Four Set in Florida DIAA Conference

03.26.2023College Men

The final four in the Florida DIAA college competition is set after this weekend's first round of playoffs.

Six teams were in action this week, playing quarterfinals while 1st-place team Florida State had a bye.

Florida won convincingly over North Florida 62-7.

Martin Gentile scored three tries and so did Justo Olivera, who added five conversions for a personal haul of 25 points. Felix Olivera, Brian Stock, Sam Koelsch, and Ryan Duffy also touched down for the Gators.

"The team is coming together nicely," said Florida Head Coach Ken Simmons. "They are continuing to work hard at getting better but we have plenty of work to do. Our scrums and lineouts continue to dominate; combine that with our skilled and dynamic backline and we have a well-rounded team.

North Florida made the Gators work for it, added Simmons, and he added that his side helped that by committing too many penalties.

In a wide-open, back-and-forth game Florida International beat Central Florida 41-28. FIU spun it wide frequently and that was good enough to put them well ahead early in the second half and they cruised from there. Segundo Cremaschi scored four tries for FIU while all four of UCF's tries were scored by scrumhalf Mark Carvajal.

South Florida got by FAU 36-7. The Bulls put the Owls under pressure for most of the first 25 minutes but got no payoff for it. That was until USF finally bashed it over on a tap penalty play that was essentially give it to a hard-runner and hope he blasts through—Derrick Lei-Sam did the honors.

Back knocking on the door a few minutes later, South Florida spun it quickly to wing Joe Thornton, who fought his way over. The Bulls' shape started to tell the tale after that and outside center Michael Burrell beat several defenders to run in.

That made it 17-0 at halftime. Lock Bradford Ballard's try in the second half made it 24-0 and FSU secured the win from there.

So all of that sets up next week's semifinals, with Florida State hosting Florida International, and Florida hosting South Florida.

In the regular season, FIU beat Florida State 34-33 in a bit of an upset. Florida beat USF 34-14 in their previous meeting.