MORNING BRIEFING: Wake Forest seniors celebrate

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Oct 27, 2008

On Senior Night, No. 1 Wake Forest's seniors came through as Sam Cronin, Jamie Franks and Marcus Tracy all scored in the 5-2 win over Boston College. Akron clinched its fourth consecutive Mid-American regular-season championship with a 2-0 win over Western Michigan. Winners of Top 25 clashes were Michigan (over previously unbeaten Northwestern) and Connecticut (playing without stars O'Brian White and Akeem Priestley) over Notre Dame. North Carolina and Virginia both were upset in ACC matches.

TOP THREE
WAKE FOREST 5 BOSTON COLLEGE 2
Playing in its final regular-season home game of the season, No. 1 Wake Forest sent the winningest senior class in program history out in style with a 5-2 win over Boston College on Saturday evening in front of a season-high 3,979 fans at Spry Stadium.
 
Seniors Sam Cronin, Jamie Franks and Marcus Tracy tallied goals for the Deacs and Michael Lahoud added an assist.

Sophomore Corben Bone was the offensive star of the night, scoring the eventual game-winning goal and adding a career-high three assists. Bone became the single-season assist record holder at Wake Forest with 15, breaking the previous record of 13 held by Austin da Luz and Ryan Solle.

AKRON 2 WESTERN MICHIGAN 0
Junior Ben Zemanski scored his first goal of the season off a feed from Kofi Sarkodie in the 18th minute and added his team-leading ninth assist of the year in the 63rd minute on a score by Teal Bunbury. The Zips claimed their fourth consecutive Mid-American regular-season championship with the win.

"It certainly wasn't our best effort of the year, but I thought we defended well and scored a couple of great goals," said Coach Caleb Porter. "We didn't play as well as we are capable of playing but we'll take the win and move on."

TOP 25 ACTION
NORTHWESTERN 1 MICHIGAN 3
Northwestern was handed its first loss of the season Saturday night as Michigan came into Lakeside Field and scored three times in the second half -- matching the total scored by NU's first 13 opponents.  Mauro Fuzetti led the Wolverines with two goals. Steve Bonnell added the insurance goal. Brian Usinger scored on a penalty for the Wildcats, who fell to 3-1-0 in the Big Ten. Michigan improved to 2-1-1.

CONNECTICUT 1 NOTRE DAME 0 (OT)
A golden goal from Cruz Hernandez, his first goal of the season, in the third minute of the first overtime period gave Connecticut a 1-0 victory over Notre Dame before a sellout crowd on Saturday afternoon at windy Morrone Stadium. The Huskies again played without 2007 Hermann Trophy winner O'Brian White, who is injured, and fellow Jamaican star Akeem Priestley.

UPSETS
CLEMSON 3 NORTH CAROLINA 2 (OT)
Clemson ended North Carolina's three-match winning streak. Nathan Thornton scored in the 108th minute for his second goal of the game. Junior Hassan Ibrahim added the third goal for the Tigers in the 78th minute as Clemson rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the first half. Tar Heel forward Brian Shriver scored his 13th on the season and set up freshman Billy Schuler in the 60th minute to put the Heels ahead 2-1.

RUTGERS 2 LOUISVILLE 1
The Cardinals fell to 4-4-1 in Big East play with the loss on Saturday evening at Yurcak Field. Robert McLarney put Rutgers ahead in the first half when he blasted a shot from 25 yards out, and Gaetano Panuccio increased the lead when scored off a free kick from Josh Carrol in the 72nd minute. Ryan McDonald added a late goal for Louisville.

DUKE 1 VIRGINIA 0 (OT)
Senior Mike Grella buried a penalty kick in the first overtime to lead the Blue Devils past Virginia. Grella's goal was his fourth game-winner of the season and second in overtime.