[AKRON MEN] There’s no doubt who’s No. 1 on the men’s side. No. 1 Akron traveled to ACC country for matches at No. 2 North Carolina and No. 7 Wake Forest andcame away with a pair of convincing wins.

The Zips followed up on their 3-0 win at Carolina on Friday night with a 2-0 win at Wake Sunday before 4,583 fans, the largest regular-seasoncrowd in the history of Spry Stadium.

It’s a big change from three years ago when Akron traveled to Carolina and Wake and had opposite results.

“Back in 2007 when Anthony [Ampaipitakwong] and Michael [Nanchoff] – two guys from my first recruiting class – were freshmen, we cameto North Carolina on this same trip and were defeated by Wake Forest, 3-1, and North Carolina, 3-0,” said Akron head coach Caleb Porter. “So to come back andget two results against two of the best and well-coached programs in the country three years later is very special.”

Akron received first-half goals from redshirt freshman in Eric Stevenson and true freshman Perry Kitchen and junior Darlington Nagbe completedthe scoring at UNC.

“I think the game was closer than the final score indicated,” said Porter. “They had some good looks though I’m not so sure they had as many as the box score wouldtell you. That being said, they could have scored a couple of goals and we need to do a better job as we move forward.”

Sophomore goalkeeper DavidMeves, a Freshman All-American in 2009, came up with six saves.

At Wake, the Zips got goals from Jamaican freshman Darren Mattocks andNagbe.

“I thought Darlington and Darren had really good chemistry up top and I was happy to see Darren get his first goal — his first of what I think will be many,” Porter said.

The Akron did much better against Wake, holding the Demon Deacons  to just four shots, none on goal.

Leave a comment