Florida State and Central Florida will face off April 16 for the Florida DIAA collegiate championship after both teams won semifinals Saturday.

Florida State's experience was a little strange in that their coaches had rugby conflicts and weren't actually able to be with the team when the game started. (The coaches had started a Tallahassee men's club which had a playoff game on the same day.) The coaches, including Head Coach Michael Gomez, joined the team after the game against North Florida has started, but the players (with coaching advice via phone) had taken care of their gameday preparation and were 14-3 up at the time.

"They did a good job and just when I arrive I saw us get a penalty on a scrum," said Gomez. "That was gratifying because North Florida has a really strong front row. We were up 14-3 but pretty soon it was 28-3."

The Florida State players worked their game plan, saw that it was effective, and kept it going. The result was a 45-10 victory.

Outside center Sam Williams, who started the school year as a development player, has nailed down the position and was very effective in this game. As has been the case all season, FSU's defense was excellent.

Meanwhile, Central Florida defeated FIU 45-29. 

It wasn't a perfect performance by the Knights, but it was good enough.

"I am really proud of the guys," said Head Coach Evan Haigh. "We had a lot of new guys stand up today and play really well, while some of the more experienced guys had an off kind of day."

Haigh said his team played good defense and built their structure "nicely ... at times." 

UCF No. 8 Michael MacNeil scored four tries on the day.

So now we have the teams who were 6-0 and 5-1 in the regular season meet up in the final, just as you'd expect. Central Florida's lone loss was, of course, to Florida State. That happened on February 12 when FSU held UCF to only two tries in winning 41-14 with flanker Jonathan O'Keeffe scoring three tries.

For UCF it was easily the most points they had given up all season and the only game in which they score less than 28. 

"We have been waiting for another shot at FSU," said Haigh.