Akron Zips Win Penalty Shootout to Advance to Sunday’s Final

CARY, N.C. – The University of Akron men’s soccer team defeated North Carolina in penalty kicks, 5-4, to advance to the national championship game for the second time in school history in front of 8,862 fans and a nationally-televised audience at WakeMed Stadium Friday night.

The top-seeded Zips (23-0-1) will face No. 2 seed Virginia (18-3-3), which defeated Wake Forest, 2-1, in overtime in the first semifinal game, Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPN2. Fans can also listen live on-line on GoZips.com.

Akron saw its NCAA record-tying 23-game win streak come to an end after playing the Tar Heels to a scoreless tie through 110 minutes. But the Zips went a perfect 5-for-5 on penalty kicks – capped off by a game clincher from junior co-captain Blair Gavin – to capture the bigger prize: the opportunity to win the first team championship in school history.

“I’m pleased we’re in the championship game but a little disappointed we didn’t score a goal in the run of play in regulation,” said UA head coach Caleb Porter. “I thought we could have done a little bit better in the final third in creating chances and being a little more aggressive. But I thought we had a few nice sequences and a lot of possession. At the end of the day, we move on.

“On the other side, we defended very well – like we’ve done all year. A championship team is typically a team that not only attacks, but the common thread is the ability to defend well, and we did that today. Individually and collectively, we defended very well.”

Both teams connected on their first two penalty kicks with freshman Zarek Valentin and senior Ben Zemanski keeping pace for UA. North Carolina (16-2-4), which shot first, left the door open when Jordan Graye missed his attempt. Another Akron freshman, Scott Caldwell, made UNC pay by converting his attempt to set up Gavin’s game-winning shot.

With its fourth consecutive shutout, the Zips ran their season total to 18 and have yet to allow a goal in the NCAA Tournament this year. The total matches (Indiana, 1979) the second-highest shutout total for a single season in NCAA history.

For the second straight week, UA goalkeeper David Meves came up with big plays when it mattered the most and was helped out by a game-changing play by fellow freshman Ben Speas, who may have played his best game of the season.

Despite playing one man short after defender Brett King drew his second yellow card of the game in the 70th minute, UNC applied the pressure in the closing minutes of the second overtime period.

Meves came up with a big save off a chip shot by Michael Farfan in the 107th minute that set up one of five North Carolina corner kicks for the game. The ball was served from the right corner into the left side of the box where Graye redirected it towards the goal with a header. But Speas met the ball with a header of his own to record a team save and preserve the tie.

Enzo Martinez provided one last attempt for the Tar Heels with a close-range rocket in the 108th minute that was smothered by Meves. The true freshman finished with a personal-best six saves on the night.

UNC keeper Brooks Haggerty also turned in a heroic effort between the pipes with a career high seven saves, including a brilliant save of a shot from Caldwell late in the first overtime period.

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to North Carolina,” Porter said. “Being down a man and to hang on like they did is a credit to their heart and the type of team that they are. They’ve had a great season and they’re a tremendous team.”

For the first time in the NCAA Tournament, the Zips failed to score a goal in the first half. Shots were hard to come by in the early going for both teams as UA and UNC felt each other out.

“I thought overall it was a pretty slow game,” Porter said. “I would have liked to see us push the tempo a little bit more. When you sit guys behind the ball, it’s difficult. They shut down the center channel very well and we had a tough time generating much.”

Akron had the first true scoring opportunity of the match at the 20:20 mark when Darlington Nagbe was brought down just outside the box. Anthony Ampaipitakwong, who has been deadly on free kicks this postseason, fired around a wall of defenders from 19 yards out but was denied when Haggerty dove to his left to make the save. Kofi Sarkodie got a head on the ensuing corner kick, but Haggerty was there once again to make the stop.

Zips Notebook: Akron is 5-2 in four years under Porter at the NCAA Tournament … The only other time UA advanced to the NCAA championship game was in 1986 when it lost to Duke (1-0) at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash.