“From the first drive, it was clear that the University of Akron football team was in for a long day against Penn State in State College, PA. The first Nittany Lion drive was capped off by an Evan Royster touchdown run, and the Zips found themselves in a 7-0 hole just 3:42 into the game.”
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From the first drive, it was clear that the University of Akron football team was in for a long day against Penn State in State College, PA.

The first Nittany Lion drive was capped off by an Evan Royster touchdown run, and the Zips found themselves in a 7-0 hole just 3:42 into the game.

The eighth-ranked Nittany Lions scored early and often, and went on to route the Zips 31-7.

They did some good things, they had a good game plan and they have great players, Zips Head Coach J.D. Brookhart said of the PSU attack. Some things got revealed that we have to get cleaned up.

Penn State’s 31 points all came in a first half, which saw Daryll Clark set a Nittany Lion record for passing yards in a half with 254.

Clark completed 17 of 25 passes and threw for three touchdowns in the first half as the Lions out gained the Zips 344-8 in total yards of offense.

He’s a competitor and he’s going to do anything to help his team come away with a ‘W’, Zips junior linebacker Mike Thomas said. He got outside a few times and made a couple of big plays, and we came up short.

For how good Clark’s first half was, Zips senior quarterback Chris Jacquemain’s was the complete opposite.

Jacquemain completed four of nine passes for just 25 yards and was sacked twice for a total loss of 10 yards.

They are the best defense we are going to see all year, Jacquemain said. They got a lot of pressure on me and we couldn’t handle it at times.

The Zips running attack was also stifled by the Lion defense as they rushed for negative 17 yards in the first half and just 28 yards in the entire game.

The run game piece was disappointing because I think we had an opportunity to run the ball and do some things, especially in the first half, Brookhart said.

The struggling first half offense put the defense in bad field position allowing the Nittany Lion offense to drive up the score.

The defense played extremely hard, Brookhart said. They were put in some awful situations with short fields and they responded pretty well. I don’t think the score reflected how they played.

The Zips responded in the second half outscoring Penn State 7-0 and gaining close to 200 yards of total offense.

I was happy with the way we played in the second half, Jacquemain said. We told the guys at halftime that we didn’t want to lay down or quit, just keep fighting and whatever happens out there, happens.

Jacquemain led the Zips to their only scoring when he completed a 40-yard pass to senior wide receiver Deryn Bowser.

We went to max protection in the second half to slow down the rush and I was able to get some time back there to throw, Jacquemain said. They were in a cover two defense, and we had a corner post route where Bowser faked to the corner and went to the post. The middle was wide open and we got six off it.

A key component to the Zips defense that held PSU scoreless in the second half was senior wide receiver-turned-safety Andre Jones. Jones began practicing at safety last week.

I think we need help in the secondary, Brookhart said. I thought with the emergence of Jeremy LaFrance that it allowed us to play our best 22 players on the field, both sides of the ball.

I think Andre will get some reps offensively, but I think we’re fairly set on keeping him on the defensive side of the ball.

The Zips will return to action Sept. 12 when they begin play at InfoCision Stadium-Summa Field against the Morgan State University Bears. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.

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