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Like everyone on this board, I am very apprehensive....that the Zips will have to play probably Pittsburgh...without 2 very good players...Jason Shokalook and Dyson Clapier. Well, I am going to look at things in a very positive perspective. As I mentioned in a previous post, the zips went to Pittsburgh and played the Panthers to a 3-3 tie. Most zips fans at the game thought that the final should have been 4-2 zips. The zips had a very questionable offsides call against them. If not called, the Zips score 4 goals in that game. Most Zips fans at the game felt that Pitt was clearly offside on one of their 3 goals. Looking at the video on both calls, the Zips got "homered" on the road. I have attached a box score from the game . If you look at the box score, one important name will not jump out at you. Jason Shokalook did not play in the regular season game against Pittsburgh as Jason had received a red card against Ohio State. I would argue very strongly that the zips are much better now in both the midfield and on the defensive backline....than they were when they played Pitt early in the season. Why do I say that? Again. Look at the box score. Will Jackson was injured and only played 3 minutes in that game. I believe that Sam Tojaga's first game back from Injury was against Pitt. Sam Tojage only played 7 minutes. The zips have been a much better team with Captain Sam Tojaga in the midfield. With Sam Tojage hopefully playing 90 minutes on Sunday, the Zips will be much better in the midfield. If you look at the box score, Malik and Ashton were the outside backs. Joel Sangwa and William Portman were the center backs. Will Jackson has done a great job after moving to center back. Will Jackson and Joel Sangwa are a very strong center back duo. Ashton has continued to improve during his freshman season. Ashton is better now than he was in October. Ryan Kingsford is a warrior. He will run thru walls for the Zips. In Shooky's absence against Pitt, "King" stepped up and had a huge game. "King" and Stefean Dobrijevic will both rise to the challenge on Sunday. Dyson is a great player and he will be missed on Sunday. However, if you look at the box score, Terence Okoeguale only played 14 minutes against Pitt. As I mentioned in a previous post, Terence Okoeguale may be the most improved player over the course of the season. It won't be easy.......but the zips battled Pitt very well in October....essentially without Will Jackson and without Sam Tojaga....and almost without Terence Okoegaule. The zips need a full house in the stands. When you look at their last matchup, this zips team is deep....and talented...and they can and will battle either Pitt or Cleveland State. https://gozips.com/sports/mens-soccer/stats/2022/-3-pittsburgh/boxscore/8525

By the way, with the NCAA change to eliminate golden goal this season, if a game goes into overtime, 20 additional minutes must now be played. It is split into two 10 minute periods with 2 minutes break in between as in the past, but the full 20 minutes of OT must be played.

Congratulations to West Pittsburgh area 3A player of the year.....zip recruit Ryan Kopay https://tribhssn.triblive.com/boys-all-wpial-soccer-teams-players-coaches-of-year-announced/

I don't think they've shown the formula necessarily. Not everyone has the size or physicality to pull off their game plan.

Did someone say snow?

I really would love to see a nice bounce back game. Morgan State is not a bad team at all. They pushed a fantastic VCU team to the point where they were leading at half. But in all honesty, we clearly are not an at large team. So, I just want to see that the offense is working a little smoother. Specifically Greg, who was HIGHLY touted out of HS. I saw some comments about his commitment and he was very heavily recruited out of HS. Only came here due to the Asst. Coach being his old head coach at Huntington Prep. He has extreme athleticism and I would imagine that Groce will find ways to free him up. The problem is that we cannot hit water from a boat right now. Why would they guard Sammy, Garv, Greg, from 3? They can smush enrique out of the paint and then we are in trouble. Need to see progress tonight.

The Zips got into the top 16, taking the final spot. They will host the winner of Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland State on Sunday.

As I recall, we scored the goal when we were only down 1 player. The 2nd red card came with less than 4 minutes remaining.

Very good point. MAC POTY is Daniel Nimick, a CB. And GK Hunter Morse is arguably the best in the country. Pitt have a lot of weapons, but they cannot replicate the size and strength of WMU.

Excited to watch tonight! First game I'll be able to catch this season, lets goooo!!!

Shook was also out against Pitt after the Red Card he had against Ohio State. Ryan Kingsford played a really good game that day basically playing in place of him. Also Will Jackson was out most of that game too, so hopefully Jackson and Kingsford will be valuable on Sunday

Jinx! Just started a new thread while you put this one up. Mods please take mine down, thanks! There's a game this week! The Zips are in Buffalo on Saturday at 3:30pm on CBS Sports. Akron has not won in Buffalo since 2005. After winning the first 8 games in the all-time series against the Bulls, Akron has lost 10 of the last 13. Buffalo football has always held a very special place of sadness in my heart, as they closed the Rubber Bowl with a 4OT win over the Zips, and that was the loss that seemed to start the program's downward spiral. The 2022 Buffalo Bulls started off the season looking like a bust. Following losses to Maryland, Holy Cross, and Coastal Carolina, they rattled off 5 straight wins starting with a blowout win at EMU, and concluding with a come-from-behind win over Toledo. However, they then went to OU and got hammered, and didn't survive their trip to CMU last week. The two-headed rushing attack of Ron Cook and Mike Washington has continued the Buffalo tradition of being a dominant running team. Rutgers transfer QB Cole Snyder has run the show well, throwing 14 TDs to 7 INTs. They've also got a tough defense. The Bulls have racked up 16 sacks, picked off 9 passes, recovered 11 fumbles, and have deflected 40 passes. The Zips have their work cut out for them. I'm not sure they'll even have a chance if they can't get the run game going. This is a very opportunistic defense that could feast on Akron's QBs. Buffalo is a 15-point favorite.

Johnson is also being called upon to be the 3rd big man, so his outside shooting is going to be limited. I suspect we'll see an effort made by the coaching staff to get Hunter more involved tonight and get him in a rhythm. More pick and pop type scenarios.

the MAC is SCARY right now. EMU looks great if Bates can stay out of jail, Kent looks good, and everyone else just has FELLAS that can BALL OUT. Gunna be an absolute dog fight, thankfully we have John Groce and they do not.

Bracket https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/soccer-men/d1/2022

I think barstool only gets half credit for me as I turned off the audio!

After last year, I think the "sky is falling" card needs to be reserved until we're down by more than 1 possession with 1 second to go in a MAC tournament game. Anybody who has seen the team in practice - thoughts on Ryan Prather getting time as a freshman? He was pretty highly touted with offers from schools like Wichita State.

Penn defeated 14 seed Cornell during the season. Cornell went on the road and defeated Syracuse Cornell was 10 in RPI and beat RPI number 1 Syracuse on the road Cornell went 4-2–1 in a pretty tough Ivy League. Cornell’s only non league loss was to Vermont. In addition to defeating Cornell, Vermont played Syracuse to a 1-1 tie. From my perspective, Cornell, Vermont and Penn look pretty strong. The Ivy League deserved better treatment by the committee. Dropping Penn from 13 to 30 is awful.

When it comes to assigning seeds, RPI is only one of the factors used by the committee. Do you really think Vermont and Penn are better than a healthy Zips side? That's the problem with RPI, a lower-ranked team upsets a higher-ranked team due to a red card, injury, suspension, bad call, broken-down bus, etc.... and all of the rankings are impacted. Also, travel is another factor. The committee tries to keep travel to a minimum, especially in the first few rounds. Does Vegas have College Cup odds? That would be interesting to see!

…and 2 ejections.

WVU fired its AD Shane Lyons (father of our former long snapper Cameron Lyons). Neal Brown is probably gone IMO. There's only 2 jobs I could see Joe Mo leaving for, WVU and Pitt as they would be P5 programs that are closer to home. With our season, I don't think he'd be a candidate at WVU, so we can probably cross them off of being an option for the next 5 years.

I watched the ESPN+ broadcast this morning and do not see an offside on the Akron corner kick at ~52:23. Broncos #17 is between Johnny Fitzgerald and the Broncos goal. All of our other players are between them and midfield. How could we be offside?

Do you think they market this to their fans as "Men's Basketball program beat PENN STATE Greater Allegheny 130-49" ?

I will update this chart hopefully this week. Been away from my desktop computer for awhile. Sorry for the delay. Go Zips!!