Despite a valiant overtime effort, The University of Akron men’s soccer team (7-4-2) could not score the golden goal in the 20 minutes of overtime on Tuesday night against Penn State.

The Zips would strike first at the 11-minute mark when junior Stuart Holthusen scored a breakaway goal off an assist from teammate Pau Belana. That would be all of the scoring from either team in the first half. Sophomore goalkeeper Ben Lundt made three spectacular saves to keep Penn State off the board.

The next goal wasn’t scored until the 65-minute mark when Connor Maloney of Penn State  finally got the Nittany Lions on the board to tie the match at one. Maloney was not yet finished as he put away his second goal of the match in the 75th minute to give the Nittany Lions a one-goal lead.

When it felt like the Zips once again would fall to defeat on the road, Stuart Holthusen scored his second goal of the match and season in the 81st minute to tie it up at two.

Although overtime was full of great opportunities for the Zips to score, they were not able to get the golden goal they hoped for. Lundt would finish with six saves in the match.

One thing the Zips can take away from the match was that Holthusen finally scored his first goals of the 2016 season after missing the majority of this year with an injury. The Zips’ striker was looking forward to having a huge year after a breakout season in 2015. Hopefully, the Zips forward will continue to give Akron an offensive boost the rest of the season.

Akron will be back in action Saturday night as they return to their home field to take on West Virginia. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at FirstEnergy Stadium-Cub Cadet Field.