Akron Rallies Past Falcons, 2-1, in Championship Match

Sunday, November 16

Akron, Ohio

1:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

14-6-1

Akron (Championship)

13-6-1

Bowling Green

Akron

The Falcons congratulate Jacob Roth (right) after his second-half goal vs. the Zips

Photo by: Jeff Harwell

November 16, 2014 | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Auden, Landsberger, Roth named to MAC All-Tournament Team

By: AKRON, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

A goal with under 12 minutes left in the second half lifted the University of Akron to a 2-1 victory over the Bowling Green State University men's soccer team Sunday afternoon (Nov. 16) in the Mid-American Conference Tournament championship match. The game was held at UA's FirstEnergy Stadium - Cub Cadet Field.

LINKS
FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
PHOTO GALLERY: Jeff Harwell, Akron Athletics
INSTAGRAM VIDEO: Roth's free-kick goal
POST-MATCH INTERVIEW: Coach Nichols

With the win, the Zips improve to 13-6-1, and Akron earns the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The Falcons fall to 14-6-1.

Sophomore Jacob Roth gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead in the 67th minute, expertly curling a free kick into the lower right corner of the goal. The free kick, taken from about 25 yards out, resulted after redshirt sophomore Max Auden was fouled after a long run downfield.

VIDEO: Eric Nichols Post-Match Interview

But, just 28 seconds later, the Falcons were whistled for a foul in the box, and a penalty kick was awarded. UA's Adam Najem converted that PK to tie the score.

Then, Anthony Macchione scored what would prove to be the winner with 11:50 to go. BGSU redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Nick Landsberger made an acrobatic diving save on Macchione's initial shot, which came off of a cross by Saad Abdul-Salaam. Landsberger got a hand on the ball, which floated toward the right side of the goal, and Macchione was the first to reach it, knocking it into the vacated net.

Landsberger had a career-high eight saves in the match. Roth, Auden and Landsberger all were named to the MAC's All-Tournament Team.

Akron goalkeeper Jake Fenlason made three stops on Sunday.

"We came here to win the tournament, and we knew that in order to do that, we would have to beat some very good teams," said BGSU head coach Eric Nichols. "We were able to get by West Virginia team on Friday in a tough game, and today we gave it a good effort, but we ran into a very good Akron team. Congrats to Akron; we know they will do a great job of representing our conference in the NCAA Tournament.

"Today, I thought the only thing we really had at risk was not letting it rip, not really showing what we could do and giving it a chance. We gave it a chance, and I couldn't be more proud of the guys."

The Zips had a 22-7 shots advantage, and Akron put 10 shots on goal to BGSU's four. The first shot of the match came just three minutes in, after a giveaway by the Falcons. UA's Sean Sepe headed into the box on the left side, but rolled his shot just wide of the far post.

Several of the Falcons' chances in the first half resulted from poor clearing attempts by Fenlason. In the seventh minute, sophomore Pat Flynn got his foot on an attempted pass by the UA 'keeper. After deflecting the ball, Flynn reached it first, and slid a pass to fellow sophomore and fellow Naperville, Ill., native Joe Sullivan. Sullivan's shot forced Fenlason into a difficult save, but Fenlason was able to tip the ball wide of the net for a corner kick.

Sullivan took that corner, and slid a ball back to Roth, but Roth's long shot went wide right.

Akron's Sam Gainford led all players with six shot attempts on the day. In the ninth minute, Gainford blasted his first shot of the afternoon, but the ball sailed just wide of the upper left corner of the goal.

Three minutes later, Auden won a free kick for the Falcons as he was taken down 35 yards from goal after a long run. But, the Zips were able to clear Roth's free kick.

In the 16th minute, the Zips won a corner kick, and that kick found the head of Brad Ruhaak in the center of the six-yard box, but his attempt went just over the crossbar.

Midway through the half, the Falcons worked the ball into the box on headers by Flynn and Auden. Auden nodded the ball to junior Ryan James, but the ball was knocked away by an Akron defender before James could get a shot off.

The Zips had a similar, and perhaps a better, chance at the other end less than a minute later, as a crossing ball fell to the feet of Jesse Garcia-Aguilar in the center of the box. Before Garcia could line up a shot, however, a BG defender had taken the ball away.

As the match passed the 25-minute mark, Landsberger stopped a quick turnaround shot by Gainford. The redshirt soph saw the ball all the way, despite the fact that the shot went through a defender's legs. Two minutes later, with the Zips on a counterattack, Landsberger saved a Sepe shot at the near post after the UA junior made a long run. BG was called for a foul, though, as the teams battled for the rebound just outside the penalty area.

Najem took the ensuing free kick, and bent a shot toward the lower-right-hand corner of the frame. Landsberger, however, made a nifty diving stop, diverting the ball wide of the mark, and the Falcons successfully dealt with the corner kick.

Landsberger remained busy, but remained equal to the task, stopping shots by Gainford and Victor Souto less than a minute apart. First, the BG 'keeper made a headlong dive to his left to grab Gainford's effort. Then, he smothered Suoto's shot on the short-hop.

Under seven minutes remained in the period when, after a lengthy stretch of possession by the Zips, a shot by Richie Laryea took a dangerous deflection. With Landsberger heading to his right, the carom sent the ball the other way, but it went wide of goal for a corner kick, which was cleared by BG.

Less than a minute later, the Brown and Orange nearly benefitted from another faulty Fenlason clearance. The UA junior threw the ball toward the right side of the pitch, but it was stolen by redshirt sophomore Danny Shea. Shea quickly slid the ball to Sullivan in the center of the pitch, and Sullivan fired a shot from distance in an attempt to catch Fenlason out of position. But, the goalie scrambled back into his six-yard box in time to make the stop. The teams headed to the halftime break locked in a scoreless tie.

Early in the second period, Shea received a long pass forward as he cut inside from the left sideline, but his pass in the direction of Auden was blocked at the top of the box. Moments later, Shea intercepted an Akron pass near midfield and played a ball forward for senior Danny Baraldi. But, that ball was deflected away at the last second.

With nine minutes gone in the period, a shot by Gainford was deflected, but Landsberger parried the low shot, then grabbed the rebound with Garcia-Aguilar lurking nearby.

In the 65th minute, the Zips committed a foul deep in the Akron end, on the left side of the field. Roth's diagonal ball just missed connecting with a leaping Vlad Lekarev in the center of the box, and Fenlason grabbed the ball off of Lekarev's head.

The Zips thought they had taken the lead in the 57th minute, as Sepe made a run all the way to the touchline, and played the ball across the goalmouth, where Garcia-Aguilar tapped it home. However, the assistant referee's flag was raised, and whether the Zips were offside or the ball had crossed the line before Sepe's cross, the game remained scoreless.

In the 62nd minute, Baraldi backtracked to steal the ball near midfield, and the senior led a Falcon foray the other way. Baraldi played the ball to James, received a return pass and fired a shot that went just over the bar. Baraldi, who suffered a hamstring injury in BG's win over Western Michigan (Nov. 1), aggravated the injury on the play and was forced to leave the game.

With 25 minutes left in the match, Shea fired a dangerous ball toward goal. The cross/shot bounced through the box, but Fenlason was able to grab it and avert any danger for the Zips.

Akron won a corner kick in the 66th minute, as Sepe sailed into the box on the left side, but Roth blocked his shot out of play. Off of the ensuing corner kick, however, Auden blocked Laryea's shot, and the redshirt soph made a long run downfield. Auden carried the ball all the way into the UA defensive third of the field before he was pulled down by Clint Caso. Caso was carded and a free kick was awarded.

Roth made no mistake on that free kick, bending the ball around the Akron wall and into the lower right corner for the Falcons' first goal vs. the Zips in eight years.

BGSU's lead did not last long, however. Just 28 seconds after the goal, a PK was awarded to the Zips after a foul in the box. Najem knocked that PK home and knotted the score. That 67th minute of play saw two goals scored and three cards issued. The third card in that sequence was given to Laryea who, after Najem's goal, attempted to kick the ball back into the net but instead saw it hit Landsberger.

With 20 minutes left, Sullivan played a ball ahead to Flynn on the left side of the field. Flynn crossed the ball into the box, but Fenlason caught it out of the air as Auden and a UA defender got tangled up.

The hosts took the lead with 11:50 remaining, on the Macchione goal. The Falcons were now trailing for the first time all day, but were far from finished.

As the clock ticked under nine minutes to play, BG was buzzing as the Brown and Orange had several good chances. First, Flynn played Auden down the right side, but Auden had the ball taken away as he tried to cut back to his left near the top of the box. BG got the ball back, and a pass found Flynn in traffic at the 18-yard line, but the Falcon soph could not get a shot off. Still, the visitors regained possession, but this time, a low right-side cross from freshman Brad Macomber was blocked, and Akron regained possession.

The Zips looked to net an insurance goal, but a Laryea shot rolled past the far post after a cheeky free kick from Najem, and Nate Shultz also put a shot just wide right several moments later.

Under two minutes remained when James put a ball into the box, and that ball found the head of a BG teammate in the midst of multiple players from both teams, but that header went well wide of the mark, and the Zips had a goal kick. The Falcons could not mount another attack over the remaining 100-plus seconds, and the Zips captured the conference tourney title for the third consecutive year.

Akron, as mentioned, earns the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. Nichols and the Falcons, after losing 10 seniors off of last year's club, more than doubled the 2013 team's win total. BGSU is 14-6-1 in 2014 after going 6-7-6 overall last season.

The 2014 Falcon team features three seniors -- Baraldi, Lekarev and Jon Kumher. They led the Falcons to the MAC Tournament final for the first time in 11 years, and helped BGSU post the program's highest single-season win total in 17 years.

"This has been a great experience," said Nichols. "We came so close that we could taste the championship, and that's going to be motivating moving forward. We only lose three guys, but those guys are fantastic players and fantastic leaders. There are a lot of holes to fill there. But, we've also got a lot of young players who got better throughout the season, so I'm excited about moving forward with this group."

2014 MAC TOURNAMENT
Friday, Nov. 14 - Semifinals
#3 Bowling Green 3, #2 West Virginia 2 (OT)
#1 Akron 2, #4 Western Michigan 1

Sunday, Nov. 16 - Championship
Akron 2, Bowling Green 1

MAC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Andy Bevin, West Virginia
Jamie Merriam, West Virginia
Greg Timmer, Western Michigan
Nick Wysong, Western Michigan
Max Auden, Bowling Green
Nick Landsberger, Bowling Green
Jacob Roth, Bowling Green
Clint Caso, Akron
Sam Gainford, Akron
Adam Najem, Akron
Victor Suoto, Akron