Florida State and St. Thomas tightened their grip atop their respective divisions in the Florida D1AA Collegiate Conference after both won in fairly convincing fashion this weekend.
FSU defeated Florida 40-22, with the Gators scoring at the death to make it a little closer.
Prop Connor Simon, centers Tanner Smith and Bryan Fortay, lock Max Mandella, flanker Andrew Crouch, and forward Jaden Alexander all scored tries for the Seminoles, while captain and flyhalf Danny Bennett converted five. That moved FSU to 5-1.
Florida State has done this while rotating a huge number of players through the first side. Head Coach Michael Gomez's team has very high numbers and he works hard to find games for them all. The 1st side has seen 27 different starters and, and of the 48 reserve spots in league play, 43 have come on the field.
"Most, if not all, during meaningful match time," said Gomez. A total of 36 different players have suited up for the 1st team, with only 13 having played rugby before arriving in Tallahassee. This week Cole McKenna worked his way up from the 3rd team to get his first A-side minutes and, after a couple of shaky moments, impressed. Another player working his way up to 1st-team minutes was flanker Sam Weller. He was slated to be on the reserves bench but when the starter was stuck in traffic he had to start. Weller responded with several big tackles, executed a few important poaches, and ran well.
Just a sophmore, Crouch has been superb for FSU this season getting a ton of work done at blindside flanker. With Mandella logging a high work rate and reading the game well, and freshman Santi Kong was very elusive.
