After returning home from a three-game road trip to begin the 2014 campaign, the University of Akron men’s soccer never looked back after senior Saad Abdul-Salaam put the Zips on the board in the 33rd minute as the team held on for the 2-1 victory over UCF at their home opener on Friday night at FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field.
Akron took complete control in the first half, posting seven shots with five of those on goal. Junior Sean Sepe led the Zips with three shots, two of those on goal, as he created two very strong chances early on that helped UA fight toward a possession-heavy half. Akron’s defense held the Knights to two shots in the first half, both off set pieces that were easily deflected out of the box by a scurry of players in the box battling for position.
Abdul-Salaam, who posted the assist for sophomore Adam Najem’s first half goal at FGCU last Saturday, led the Zips’ attack early on, netting his first goal of the season as freshman Jesse Garcia-Aguilar dished the ball in from the right side to pick up the assist. Abdul-Salaam’s header put Akron (1-2-1) up 1-0, their second game in a row getting on the board first.
“One thing about this team despite the results, they’ve kept their heads up,” head coach Jared Embick emphasized after the match.
Garcia-Aguilar went on to score a goal of his own, the first of his career, in the 66th minute off of a pass from freshman Stuart Holthusen. Holthusen tapped the ball into the middle of the box where Garcia-Agular was able to corral it around his defender and nail it in, giving the Zips a 2-0 advantage.
“He played with a good tempo,” Embick added. ” That right side with him and Saad [Abdul-Salaam] was excellent; I don’t think many people are going to stop that side when they play like that. If they use each other like that then Jesse is going to get time to make plays and you saw tonight he’s more than capable of it.”
UCF’s Romario Williams connected on a penalty kick in the 82nd minute, his third goal of the young season, to take away the shutout for Akron junior goalkeeper Jake Fenlason and bring the score to 2-1, still in favor of the Zips.
“We made a mistake there at the end, but we kept our heads and finished the game out well,” Embick noted. “You saw how hard they worked. They were very fit tonight.”
Freshman Richie Laryea was involved in two good chances for UA to add an insurance goal late with less than 12 minutes to play as he took a ball from Nate Shultz and tapped it into the box before UCF goalkeeper Sebastian Evers scooped it up. Less than two minutes later, Laryea placed a feed into the box for Holthusen that ran just too far and out of bounds.
The Zips held strong to close out the match, keeping the ball on their offensive end for the majority of the final minutes with 2,758 strong in the stands.
Abdul-Salaam, commenting on the team’s integrity, said that, “this game, we finally came out and drew a line and said we wanted to win.”
Goalkeeper Jake Fenlason played all 90 minutes for the Zips, making two saves and backing a strong defense that kept the ball out of UCF (1-3-0) territory for most of the night.
On the progression through four games this season, Embick concluded, “We’ve gotten better every game, I think you’ve seen that tonight. You got a glimpse at what we’re capable of doing. We’ll get it going and it’s only going to get better. You saw a lot more from Akron soccer in the past and for a good period in the game I thought we were dominant [like that].”
Akron takes to the field again on Sunday against Hartford at 2:30 p.m. The Hawks defeated College of Charleston earlier today in the first match of the University of Akron Tournament, 1-0.
