Favorite Zips match/moment

[Reslife4Life]

Well we have reached a lull in the Zips Athletic calendar. Just thought it could be fun to post in all 3 groups this thread. What is your favorite Zips game/moment that you watched and remember fondly

 

For soccer I would have to go with the 2019 home game vs NIU. Down 2-0 with 10 minutes to go and we come all the way back with Will Jackson getting a miracle bounce to score the winner with 3 seconds left in regulation. The absolute worst season of Zips soccer I ever watched, but man they turned it around in MAC play 

[Zip_ME87]

Thanks @Reslife4Life and Happy Thanksgiving 🦃. 

 

For me, nothing compares to the 2010 NCAA D1 Men’s Soccer Championship game at UC Santa Barbara. I was sick with food poisoning throughout the game until Scotty Caldwell scored, and the Zips survived a 2 minute barrage in the final minutes and went on to win the title. In addition to Scotty’s rebound goal, I vividly recall David Meves’ foot save and Chad Barson’s shin save, Caleb Porter yelling “They’re wilting” in the waning minutes, and Gaucho fans celebrating with the AK Rowdies. Not only did the Zips win the title, but doing so against mob-funded Louisville and former Zips HC Ken Lolla was the best. My food poisoning went away until later at my hotel near LAX. 
 

 

 

[Zip_ME87]

I can’t help but post this close 2nd. Not one specific game but several games over a weekend in the DC area. 
 

sep 4, 2015 Zips defeat Georgetown 1-0 at Georgetown. I immediately get a cab following the game and go across town to RFK Stadium to watch the USMNT, featuring RB, former Zip, DeAndre Yedlin defeat Panama in the Gold Cup. 
 

sep 7, 2015 Zips defeat the Maryland Terrapins 3-2 at Maryland. 
 

Best Zips weekend I’ve ever had other than the 2010 College Cup. 
 

Edited November 29 by Zip_ME87

[ZipsBurgh]

This match always comes to mind.

 

#1 vs #2.  On Fox Soccer Channel. Amazing crowd and so much hype. Then we battered them 4-0.  What a night.

 

[ZipsBurgh]

Another one I think of often:

 

 

[Let'sGoZips94]

9 minutes ago, ZipsBurgh said:

Another one I think of often:

 

 

 

This is the one I was gonna say. The "EIEIEIO! TO THE COLLEGE CUP WE GO" hit differently after standing in the cold through PKs. 

[MDZip]

Actually it was a loss that was one of my favorite moments (to be honest nothing could have topped being at the national championship but this came very close for me). In 2018 when the Zips made the national championship, they played Maryland. My daughter had just graduated from there and happened to be in San Diego at the time. So I flew out and we went to the game together and it was pretty cool being with her and having her team win a National championship on the same field that the Zips had 8 years earlier. 

[Zip88]

1986 NCAA game vs Penn State, shootout win, I believe it was on Thanksgiving weekend.  That win took the Zips to Fresno Sate for a Semi-Final game and then the following weekend to Tacoma for Akron's first appearance in the NCAA finals vs Duke. 

[Zip_ME87]

1st Zip to be selected #1 overall in the MLS Superdraft.

 

With the first pick of the 1st round of the 2009 MLS Superdraft, Seattle Sounders FC select from the University of Akron, forward and member of Generation Adidas, Steve Zakuani ...

 

 

[Zip_ME87]

Just 9 years later, defender Joao Moutinho, #1 overall in 2018 MLS Superdaft (at ~9:00 minute mark)...

 

 

[WeRise225]

On 11/28/2024 at 8:35 AM, ZipsBurgh said:

This match always comes to mind.

 

#1 vs #2.  On Fox Soccer Channel. Amazing crowd and so much hype. Then we battered them 4-0.  What a night.

 

Look at that crowd, it really makes me sad we don't have that anymore. I can't believe that's the same school. 

[blueandgold]

I'm not much of a soccer fan, but my best moment for sure is when we won the National Championship over Louisville in 2010!

[fknbuflobo]

Does anyone remember Zips hosting Hoosiers in regular season 1986?  Match was moved to Buchtel Field because rainy weather the previous 5 days made Lee Jackson unplayable.

10/5/1986.

[ZippyRulz]

On 12/4/2024 at 12:04 PM, blueandgold said:

I'm not much of a soccer fan, but my best moment for sure is when we won the National Championship over Louisville in 2010!

 

Gotta be this for me too. Plus that year or maybe it was 2009 when the Zips were atop the poll, I was at the CAK airport at the same time they were there leaving for a match.

 

[Zip88]

5 hours ago, fknbuflobo said:

Does anyone remember Zips hosting Hoosiers in regular season 1986?  Match was moved to Buchtel Field because rainy weather the previous 5 days made Lee Jackson unplayable.

10/5/1986.

I remember that game!

[TennZip]

18 hours ago, fknbuflobo said:

Does anyone remember Zips hosting Hoosiers in regular season 1986?  Match was moved to Buchtel Field because rainy weather the previous 5 days made Lee Jackson unplayable.

10/5/1986.

@fknbuflobo  you will enjoy the memories with this article

Simon Spelling was told that he was not good enough to play for Duke ???  Simon was fantastic.

https://gozips.com/sports/2018/4/25/team-of-distinction-1986-mens-soccer

[fknbuflobo]

6 hours ago, TennZip said:

@fknbuflobo  you will enjoy the memories with this article

Simon Spelling was told that he was not good enough to play for Duke ???  Simon was fantastic.

https://gozips.com/sports/2018/4/25/team-of-distinction-1986-mens-soccer

Simon Spelling remains the Gold Standard for Akron Defenders.  I have not witnessed any better, though Beto Ydratch was very similar.        

It is a real shame that Simon is such a Spurs fan….

 

 

[fknbuflobo]

Akron Zips vs. Indiana Hoosiers 1975-2024

7 Akron Wins

27 Akron Losses

3 Draws

 

https://iuhoosiers.com/sports/msoc/opponent-history/akron/153

 

This Zips Memory 10/5/1986 is the only victory over Indiana during the 1980s.

1-0

 

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in early October following nearly a week of rain.  Everything everywhere was muddy.  I do not recall Buchtel Field having much bleacher seating; maybe there was none at all.  The crowd were kept from the field by hastily staked nylon rope.  That’s it.  Fans were virtually on top of the game, in a way that would not be permissible today.  It was unsafe.  The pitch was barely lined, and I think it was smaller than regulation.  Both teams were just making do with the conditions. 

 

Matches between Akron and Indiana are historically physical.  Just ask Dyson Clapier.  To date, this match is the roughest (dirtiest) NCAA contest that I have ever attended (and I have attended hundreds).  Every tackle was violent!  Every head-ball left someone on the ground.  Loose balls were perilous.  Seemingly every player in the match was limping at one time or another.  Sound familiar?  This game was about screw-in cleats, slide-tackles, and bloody noses.  Ugly.  Choppy.  MF Graham Evison (RIP) became my hero that day. 

 

After an especially egregious tackle where MF Michael Berish was intentionally elbowed in the face, Head Referee displayed the yellow card.  Akron bench was outraged, screaming for a straight Red.  During clock stoppage as Berish received medical attention from the Trainer, Assistant Coach Simon Spelling, himself not far removed from these same battles with Indiana, called D Shaun Docking to the sideline.  The conversation was heated but whispered behind raised hands so that only those two could hear. 

 

Game play resumed for about five minutes afterward.  Zips were (barely) keeping possession in their final third.  Then there was very audible (and somewhat sickening) ccrracckk.  Whatever happened occurred in the Akron defensive third, far away from where the ball was.   Out of the corner of my eye I just caught Docking walking away from the Indiana player left on the ground… crying.  Like sobbing.  No call was made by the officials.  Jerry Yeagley was apoplectic, as if he was going to stroke out and die right there in Akron.  His coaching staff did well to restrain him.  To this day I am not certain what happened.  And I am not sure those who do know would tell.  Rumor has it that the player’s rib was broken.  Others maintain there was a knee to the… midsection.  Whoever that Hoosier was, he did not return to the contest.  Done.

 

I need help from others here.  These things are not easily researched nowadays.  How did we score?  Was it a PK?  F David Wells?  Sadly, I do not remember all the details.  I just remember D Matt Smith picking mud out of his hair as the clock expired.

 

I truly hope they are on our schedule in 2025, but F#@% Indiana and the Hoosiers they rode in on!

[TennZip]

5 hours ago, fknbuflobo said:

Simon Spelling remains the Gold Standard for Akron Defenders.  I have not witnessed any better, though Beto Ydratch was very similar.        

It is a real shame that Simon is such a Spurs fan….

 

 

Mr. Spelling was also an amazing high school soccer coach as well.   His results at Medina were extraordinary.   For many years, Mr. Spelling would bring 7 to 8 Meidna players to Akron home games and they would sit a row or two behind me.   Coach Spelling would often point out good technique and great efforts to the young men from Medina during the Akron game.

[zippy-claws]

May not be a match or moment, but decorated our "tree" today, and hung this beauty our daughter cross-stitched/needlepointed for us way back in 2016...

 

[Z.I.P.]

On 12/6/2024 at 12:20 PM, fknbuflobo said:

Akron Zips vs. Indiana Hoosiers 1975-2024

7 Akron Wins

27 Akron Losses

3 Draws

 

https://iuhoosiers.com/sports/msoc/opponent-history/akron/153

 

This Zips Memory 10/5/1986 is the only victory over Indiana during the 1980s.

1-0

 

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in early October following nearly a week of rain.  Everything everywhere was muddy.  I do not recall Buchtel Field having much bleacher seating; maybe there was none at all.  The crowd were kept from the field by hastily staked nylon rope.  That’s it.  Fans were virtually on top of the game, in a way that would not be permissible today.  It was unsafe.  The pitch was barely lined, and I think it was smaller than regulation.  Both teams were just making do with the conditions. 

 

Matches between Akron and Indiana are historically physical.  Just ask Dyson Clapier.  To date, this match is the roughest (dirtiest) NCAA contest that I have ever attended (and I have attended hundreds).  Every tackle was violent!  Every head-ball left someone on the ground.  Loose balls were perilous.  Seemingly every player in the match was limping at one time or another.  Sound familiar?  This game was about screw-in cleats, slide-tackles, and bloody noses.  Ugly.  Choppy.  MF Graham Evison (RIP) became my hero that day. 

 

After an especially egregious tackle where MF Michael Berish was intentionally elbowed in the face, Head Referee displayed the yellow card.  Akron bench was outraged, screaming for a straight Red.  During clock stoppage as Berish received medical attention from the Trainer, Assistant Coach Simon Spelling, himself not far removed from these same battles with Indiana, called D Shaun Docking to the sideline.  The conversation was heated but whispered behind raised hands so that only those two could hear. 

 

Game play resumed for about five minutes afterward.  Zips were (barely) keeping possession in their final third.  Then there was very audible (and somewhat sickening) ccrracckk.  Whatever happened occurred in the Akron defensive third, far away from where the ball was.   Out of the corner of my eye I just caught Docking walking away from the Indiana player left on the ground… crying.  Like sobbing.  No call was made by the officials.  Jerry Yeagley was apoplectic, as if he was going to stroke out and die right there in Akron.  His coaching staff did well to restrain him.  To this day I am not certain what happened.  And I am not sure those who do know would tell.  Rumor has it that the player’s rib was broken.  Others maintain there was a knee to the… midsection.  Whoever that Hoosier was, he did not return to the contest.  Done.

 

I need help from others here.  These things are not easily researched nowadays.  How did we score?  Was it a PK?  F David Wells?  Sadly, I do not remember all the details.  I just remember D Matt Smith picking mud out of his hair as the clock expired.

 

I truly hope they are on our schedule in 2025, but F#@% Indiana and the Hoosiers they rode in on!

I'm just reading this thread for the first time, and remembering why I hate Hoosiers, and their "legendary" coach "Hoosier Daddy" Jerry Yeagley.  I can't recall exactly but I believe my first personal experience with Akron Zips soccer may have been that 1975 Akron first victory over IU when I was a high school youth -- I know I saw one game in which the Nanchoff Brothers, Lou and George featured prominently and I think Indiana was the opponent.  I've heard from youth soccer coaches at tournaments what a fine gentleman and leader Jerry Yeagley was, and perhaps later in his career he mellowed.  However, as a younger coach in the 1970s he was a holy terror, throwing tantrums at every chance and I'm confident Bobby Knight learned a thing or two from his soccer counterpart.  One of the things I recall in my Hoosier memory banks is that early in my Akron student era (either 1977 or '78) we once again played Indiana at Lee Jackson and Yeagley performed what I interpreted as the most arrogant act by a coach I had ever witnessed.  He felt his depth was so strong he could win in Akron with his second team, and he subbed in and out of the game an entire group of ten field players at a time -- an entire new team!  When that happened the Akron fans erupted -- including former players such as Louie and George Nanchoff who attended games regularly.  I remember Yeagley looking back at the home bleachers and laughing smugly!  Indiana had Angelo DiBernardo, still the best collegiate striker I have ever seen on a pitch -- he was short and stocky, an Italian-American version of Diego Maradona,  so Indiana walked away with the W that late summer Sunday.  It's very interesting to read the accounts of games from the 1980s -- when I was stationed overseas in the Air Force -- describing attendances of over 2000, because those first games I attended only featured at most a few hundred.  The bleachers maybe seated a couple hundred max, and the far side of the bowl toward campus had a rise where people pitched lawn chairs -- but student attendance was at most negligible.  I've posted earlier about the ice-bowl first-round tournament game vs UW-Green Bay. That game, where again there were golf tournament style nylon ropes around the field generated a couple thou of local fans, but was surely the exception to the rule.  I remember when the team did have their run to the College Cup at the Tacoma Dome (the article left out any mention of the national semi-final -- I can't remember who we played, can anyone?) I had a running joke with a Lt Col I worked with who had been a USAFA star soccer player a while earlier about just how far my school could go, and we nearly won it all!  The final was nationally televised so it was available in Hawai'i to watch.  I hope there are other AK Oldies who have memories from this period.  It was always a pleasure to participate in the home fan festivities, including Louie Nanchoff shouting for me to turn up my transistor radio with the Browns game.  He really wanted to hear about the Bahr Brothers, who were former players at rival Penn State and sons of long-time legend Nittany Lion coach Walter Bahr who starred in the 1954 USMNT that historically defeated England in the Brazil World Cup.  One of the Bahr Brothers was briefly with the Browns (before or after Don Cockroft??) while the other played for the hated Steelers!

[Zip88]

The Zips played Fresno State at Fresno.  It was not a Final Four weekend, the Zips returned back to Akron and trained a few days before they left for Tacoma.    

[Zip_ME87]

3 hours ago, Z.I.P. said:

I remember when the team did have their run to the College Cup at the Tacoma Dome (the article left out any mention of the national semi-final -- I can't remember who we played, can anyone?) I had a running joke with a Lt Col I worked with who had been a USAFA star soccer player a while earlier about just how far my school could go, and we nearly won it all!  The final was nationally televised so it was available in Hawai'i to watch. 

 

Fresno State