“The University of Akron’s men’s soccer team knocked off the No. 15 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes Wednesday night in front of 2,473 fans, marking the second sellout of the season at Lee Jackson Field. What looked to be a back-and-forth first half turned around after a few attacking series by the Zips.”
“

The University of Akron’s men’s soccer team knocked off the No. 15 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes Wednesday night in front of 2,473 fans, marking the second sellout of the season at Lee Jackson Field.

What looked to be a back-and-forth first half turned around after a few attacking series by the Zips.

Forward Darlington Nagbe was taken down in the box during the twenty fourth minute of the game to draw a free kick for the Zips.

Midfielder Blair Gavin took the penalty kick and went to the left side of the net, just outside the reach of freshman Buckeye goalkeeper, Matt Lampson.

The goal was Gavin’s second of the season, with both goals coming from penalty kicks.

They trusted me to take those PK’s and once Darlington went down I had the confidence to make it, Gavin said. I believe I am going to make it every time so I’m going to do it for my team.

If we keep pressing, keep working and we keep our work rate up, the sky is the limit for us, Gavin said.

Shortly after Akron scored, tempers flared after midfielder Michael Nanchoff had a hard foul on Buckeye forward Andrew Magill. Magill retaliated by forcefully pushing Nanchoff, setting off a shoving match between the two teams.

Magill received a yellow card for his actions.

Ohio State had two shots during the half. One of the shots was on goal and saved by goalkeeper David Meves, who has six shutouts on the season prior to the game.

The half closed with a corner kick from Ohio State with four seconds left that was headed away from danger.

Akron had 13 total shots during the first half with five of them being on goal.

The Zips also led on corner kicks for the half by a count of 3-1.

Akron came out in the second half with the same aggressiveness they ended the half with.

In the 52nd minute of the game Nanchoff crossed the ball from the sideline into the box where he found Nagbe who headed the ball in to make the score 2-0.

The goal was Nagbe’s fourth on the season.

Akron continued their dominance as Nanchoff took a free kick from well outside of the box. Midfielder Ben Zemanski was there and put the ball into the back of the net.

The goal was Zemanski’s second on the season and the assist was Nanchoff’s seventh.

We knew this would be a good team coming in and still our coach talks about being the aggressor, Nanchoff said. It’s not that we have to change anything, we just continue to do our own thing.

The Buckeyes seemed to have given up shortly after the goal as they subed five men into the game.

Ohio State rarely touched the ball in the second half as both Akron’s offense and defense dominated the game.

Frustration set in near the end of the game as Buckeye midfielder Sebastian Rivas drew a yellow card.

No more scoring ensued during the game and it ended by a final count of 3-0.

Under Caleb Porter, the Zips are (36-0-0) when leading after halftime.

The win put Akron at (8-0-0 1-0-0 MAC) and marks the third top 25 team that the Zips have defeated.

I thought that it was a pretty dominant performance, head coach Caleb Porter said. We knew they were going to come to play and battle.

The scary thing is that we are just scratching the surface. We’re starting to gel on the attack. Our team is growing without losing and that’s one of the things we talked about. You don’t have to lose to learn. We’re learning while winning.

One of our goals was to be undefeated at Lee Jackson and we feel playing at our home in front of the fans and the Rowdies is very difficult for opponents, Porter said.

The loss is Ohio State’s first on the season as their record is now (5-1-3).

Akron will now depart on a four game road trip starting Saturday against Florida Atlantic (FAU). Last year the Zips knocked off FAU by an impressive count of 7-0.

The Zips will also play Illinois-Chicago, Western Michigan and will round out the road trip with a match against Virginia Tech.

“