TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Tournament Most Valuable Player Josh Heller (Sr., The Atwater, Calif.) and Matthew French (Sr., Danville, Calif.) both scored twice as Southwest Division Champion/No. 3-ranked San Diego State University used a 2-0 scoring advantage in the second quarter to pull away from Texas Division Champion/No. 11 the University of Texas for a 7-4 victory in the 2017 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship title game hosted by Florida State University at the Morcom Aquatics Center.
The first Southwest Division team to win the title and a two-time National Collegiate Club Championship runner-up with losses in 2014 (13-8 L vs. Lindenwood University at the Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center in Kearns, Utah) and 2015 (10-9 L at the University of California-Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif.) and the Third Place finisher a year ago at the 2016 championship after dropping a 7-6 contest in the semifinals, the Aztecs become the Southern-most team to ever claim the Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship joining the elite company of Northwestern University (1993), the United States Military Academy (1994), the University of Dayton (1995), the University of Michigan (1996, 1998, 2003), Dartmouth College (1997), California Polytechnic State University (1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007), Michigan State University (2000, 2006, 2008), Grand Valley State University (2005), the University of California-Los Angeles (2009, 2010, 2013), the University of Southern California (2011, 2012) and Lindenwood (2012, 2013, 2014) as National Champions.
The Aztecs never trailed in the game as French fired in a strike with 3:06 left in the first quarter to make it 1-0 in favor of SDSU. Texas tied the game prior to the conclusion of the opening quarter of play as Wade Munger (Sr., Corona del Mar, Calif.) beat the buzzer to fire a shot that slipped through the hands of San Diego State goalie Rockne O’Brien (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) to pull the Longhorns’ even at one-all.
San Diego State began to pull away in the second quarter as Heller and Peter DeSoto (So., Seal Beach, Calif.) buried even-strength feeds at 6:36 and 3:24, respectively, to stake the Aztecs to a 3-1 lead by halftime.
Texas chipped its deficit down to one with 4:48 remaining in the third quarter as Mitchel Kim (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) broke loose for a strike, but French lined in a penalty shot at 2:53 to get the goal back and allow San Diego State to exit the period with a 4-2 lead.
The Aztecs iced the victory in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter as Josh Scott (Fr., San Diego, Calif.) and Spencer Shortill (Sr., San Diego, Calif.) punched in points with 4:54 and 3:11 on the clock, respectively, to build the spread to 6-2.
Cooper Raterink (Sr., Houston, Texas) inched the Longhorns back within three at 6-3 with 2:34 to go, but Heller put any doubts regarding the eventual outcome to rest by lining in San Diego State’s seventh goal at 1:17. Nathan Craig (So., Houston, Texas) closed out the game by making a ball meet the back of the cage with 22 seconds left for the 7-4 final score.
For San Diego State, Scott, Shortill and DeSoto each notched solo markers to accompany Heller and French’s pairs. O’Brien earned the victory between the pipes with 14 saves.
Mason, Kim, Craig and Raterink each recorded goals for Texas, while goalie Stefan Grasu (Sr., Houston, Texas) made six saves to suffer the loss.
The game marked the second time Texas and/or a Texas Division team has made the National Championship game as the Longhorns’ took a 12-8 loss to the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) on November 14, 2010 at Southern Utah University.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| San Diego State University | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | – | 7 |
| University of Texas | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | – | 4 |
| Texas Goals: | Wade Munger; Mitchel Kim; Nathan Craig; Cooper Raterink | |||||
| San Diego State Goals: | Josh Heller (2); Matthew French (2); Josh Scott; Spencer Shortill; Peter DeSoto | |||||
| Saves: | Texas – Stefan Grasu (6) ; SDSU – Rockne O’Brien (14) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Texas – 5 ; SDSU – 2 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Texas – 0-for-2 ; SDSU – 1-for-5 | |||||
| Sprints: | Texas – 0-for-4 ; SDSU – 4-for-4 | |||||
| Officials: | Brandon Nicholson, Humberto Navarro | |||||
Photo 1: 2017 Men’s National Collegiate Club Champion San Diego State University; Photo 2: University of Texas’ Easton Honaker (#2) defends San Diego State University’s Peter DeSoto (#4); Photo 3: University of Texas’ Evan Grimes (#11) lines up a shot as San Diego State University’s Spencer Shortill (#5) defends; Photo 4: San Diego State University’s Josh Heller; Photo 5: University of Texas’ Cooper Raterink (#4) shoots around San Diego State University’s Peter DeSoto (#4); Photo 6: 2017 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship Runner-Up – University of Texas
| 2017 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship All-Tournament Team | |
| Most Valuable Player: | Josh Heller (San Diego State University) |
| Coach of the Tournament: | Bobby Woolweaver (University of Texas) |
| First Team | |
| Stefan Grasu (Goalie) | University of Texas |
| Cooper Raterink | University of Texas |
| Easton Honaker | University of Texas |
| Josh Heller | San Diego State University |
| Spencer Shortill | San Diego State University |
| Cole Carroll | California Polytechnic State University |
| Noah Feingold | University of California |
| Second Team | |
| Rockne O’Brien (Goalie) | San Diego State Unviersity |
| Kyle Seume | San Diego State Unviersity |
| Jack Brown | California Polytechnic State Unviersity |
| Tim Greer | University of Southern California |
| Mitchell Fargo | University of Southern California |
| David Newberger | University of Michigan |
| Nathan Craig | University of Texas |
