The Akron Zips secured home field advantage for the Mid-American Conference Tournament next weekend after a 4-0 thrashing of the University of Buffalo Bulls. Under the leadership of Adam Najem, the Zips took the lead early and never looked back.
Starting tonight’s matchup under a light drizzle, the Zips faced an early offensive burst from Buffalo, which had the Zips on their heels. In the eighth minute Steven Stryker was able to get a nice shot off on goal, followed only a minute later by teammate Russel Cicerone who also was close to getting the Bulls on the scoreboard. However, at about the same time the rain stopped, the Zips were able to dig in and push back into Bulls territory.
In the 13th minute of play in a true sports movie moment, senior Clint Caso was able to put the zips on the board. Adam Najem stood in the corner peering over the defensive shape looking for a place to launch his cross. Once decided, Najem took an excellent corner that cruised just above the heads of multiple Buffalo defenders, finding another defender, this time in the all-white Akron uniform. Caso, a senior defender from New Jersey crashed into the box untouched and at full speed converted a header for his first collegiate goal. It couldn’t have come at any better time for Caso. Following the game, he had this to say on the experience.
“It was great. I promised myself before I left college I would get a goal. I didn’t have any goals at my previous school and I had some open space in the box, and Adam (Najem) played a great ball. I just attacked it and got up for it. Great feeling…Indescribable.”
Already with an assist on the evening, it wasn’t long before Adam Najem stuck once again. Receiving the ball from a pass by Richie Laryea, Najem danced around the left side of the 18 yard box, clearing enough space to get a shot off. Eventually clearing enough of a gap to get off a shot, Najem put his right boot behind the ball and it took off. So much in fact, that fans and even the Buffalo keeper dismissed any threat. Just feet from going over the goal, the ball dipped by two or three feet, landing in the top right side of the net. In another flash of brilliance by Najem, that gave him 11 goals on the year, it put the Zips in prime position to claim home field before half.
Beginning the second half right where they left off, Akron came out shooting. Former Liverpool Academy player Sam Gainford had been roving inside the offense third of the pitch all night and looked ready to strike. In a big 10 minutes for the redshirt freshman, Gainford saw a massive shot from 30 yards out go well over and had a clever attempt on goal with a nice back heel flick. After seeming to find a groove, Gainford struck gold in the 64th minute off a Sean Sepe pass. Gainford collected the ball from Sepe as he ran in to the box from the left side of the pitch. Sorting out angles quickly, Gainford placed a powerful ground shot into the opposite right side of the net. Buffalo keeper Waleed Cassis had no chance as the ball was placed out of his reach as he attempted to shift his body into position.
The Zips would get one more goal on the evening behind an 81st minute goal by Anthony Maccihone goal. Maccihone used some great balance as he put a one bounce shot into the net. Taking the shot off a volley, he put enough pace on the ball where the Buffalo keeper could not push it out. It was the second goal for Maccihone, who is a Portland Timbers academy product.
With a dominant performance the Zips secured home field advantage for the MAC Championships. Facing off against Western Michigan in the first round next Friday, Zips coach Jared Embick said his team will be ready after losing in a close match earlier in the season.
“We’re going to make a lot of adjustments. This is what we want. In front of our fans we have a chance to right one of our wrongs that we’ve made this year. We had a let down that game and all of us have a bad taste in our mouths. We hoped we could get this matchup in the tournament, and we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game, but we want to prove that game was just a bad off day at the office.”
The MAC Tournament begins next weekend with the first round matchups Friday at FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field. The Zips will look to make it back to the postseason again as they fight for their second national title.
