Tempers flair as the Zips fall to the Broncos
In a battle for first place in the Mid-American Conference, the nationally ranked Akron Zips faltered under the lights. In an extremely physical and at times out of control match, Akron never seemed to establish a rhythm offensively. After gaining the early lead, the Western Michigan Broncos went into a defensive shell and never looked back.
In the opening moments of the match it looked like Akron was destined for three or four goals on the night. The first 20 minutes of the match were all Zips as they were able to push themselves into the offensive third of the pitch. In the sixth minute of play, the Zips had their first attempt on goal as sophomore Adam Najem received the ball inside the 18 yard box, and with the cheeky flair Najem brings, he chipped the ball to the left side of the Broncos goal. In a great athletic play, Broncos keeper Drew Shepherd dove the entirety of the goal to grab the ball before it went out of bounds.
Things started to slide for the Zips around the 20-minute mark. In the 22nd minute, captain Andrew Souders picked up a yellow card for a late tackle on one of Western Michigan’s midfielders. For Zips supporters this was definitely a rarity as Souders is usually one of the most calm and controlled players on the pitch game in and game out. Following the tackle multiple WMU players chased after the junior defender, even as he tried to avoid confrontation. In hindsight, this was a big foreshadowing of what was to come.
In the 31st minute the Broncos eventually broke through the poorly organized Zips defense for the sole goal of the match. Receiving the ball on the far side of the pitch following an Akron turnover, Jason Grant sliced through the right side of the Zips defense with no hesitation. Shooting to the right side of Akron keeper Jake Fenlason, the ball was hit hard and low, rolling under the body of the diving keeper. For Fenlason, this was his third or fourth time at home where the Zips back four crumbled, allowing yet another one-on-one scoring opportunity for the opposing team.
At the half, with Western Michigan leading 1-0, the Zips looked to push the pace entering the second half, but the physicality of the Broncos ended up altering the game play. In the 51st minute following a sloppy tackle on Adam Najem, players from both teams were involved in a mini brawl on the field. While no punches were thrown, it took the referees close to five minutes to figure out who was involved and what happened. It ultimately ended up with a double yellow given to Brad Ruhaak of the Zips and Sean Hazen of the Broncos. Overall there were five yellow cards given out on the night. At times it seemed like the officials were losing control of the match, but as players began to tire, so did their aggression, probably saving the game from getting out of control.
The rest of the second half was pretty uneventful as Western Michigan dropped nine men into the box and set themselves up to defend at all costs. Akron did end up regaining a majority of possession of the second half, but with nine men in the box it’s tough to get any ball movement in the attacking third. In a truly amazing statistic, the Zips first shot on goal did not come until the 81st minute of play. Another senior leader on the team, Saad Abdul-Salaam was finally able to distance himself from the Broncos defense and put a powerful shot towards goal. Shot off balance, Abdul-Salaam’s shot was going into the upper 90 of the goal if not for a tremendous save by Shepherd. This was the first moment where the fans rose to their feet since the opening 20 minutes.
Ultimately with minutes to go, the Zips were unable to get the goal needed to stay in first place. With the loss at home, the Zips most likely gave up home field advantage in the MAC tournament, which Akron has hosted the past five-plus seasons.
Following the match Zips head coach Jared Embick had this to say about his teams performance.
“It’s not secret that we were outplayed. I think they deserved the result. I don’t know what happened, I don’t know if the goal kinda rattled us, but ya know the first five minutes, I thought we were fine then things kinda went south and we never really recovered. I don’t know if it’s experience…young team, they knew what was at stake and maybe they panicked. We didn’t play our game, never got our game going. Credit to them. Disappointing…Disappointing…”
The Zips have a short turn around before facing Cleveland State at home on Tuesday. The Zips will certainly look to regain some of their goal scoring form, especially with traveling to nationally ranked Penn State on November 5th.
