Akron zips by UB in battle of ranked teams

It turns out the difference between two and 20 is three.

Twentieth-ranked UB men's soccer fell 3-0 to the number-two ranked Akron Zips Friday in a rainy, penalty-leaden game at UB Stadium.

The highly anticipated match-up was the first conference test for each squad, whose records are the best in the Mid-American Conference.

The Zips (10-0, 1-0 MAC), who tout the two leading MAC scorers, landed their first two blows early as Ross Mackenzie scored at the 11:33 marker followed by an impressive goal from Sinisa Ubiparipovic from an indirect kick at 14:15.

The Zips stuck to their style of play as they packed their defensive half of the field, stopping the Bulls (10-2 overall, 0-1 MAC) from a head-on attack while winning the midfield.

"It's their style to press themselves defensively and just win balls at midfield," said head coach John Astudillo. "I don't think we handled it well enough. We're losing balls at midfield all the time."

The Bulls managed to adjust to the Zips' defensive style of play and controlled the ball for most of time, but were unable to capitalize on their limited scoring opportunities. The Bulls only mustered one shot on goal in the second half and five for the entire game.

"They just kept going at our right side," Astudillo said. "We tried to stop that in the second half and I thought we adjusted well."

Akron's final goal came at 62:31 as Mackenzie knocked in a loose ball from a corner kick, giving him a MAC-leading 11 goals on the season, and putting the game out of reach for UB. Mackenzie's second goal marked the first time this season that junior goalkeeper Daniel Bell has been scored on three times in one game.

Both halves were loaded with physical play that resulted in UB cards. Senior Greg Galemore and freshman Dan Gywther were given yellow cards a minute apart in the first half. Then, late in the second half, the hot-tempered freshman was carded again for an illegal slide tackle, earning him a red card and an ejection from the game.

Gywther's red card forced the Bulls to play with only ten men for the final ten minutes of the game and will keep him out of Friday's contest against Bowling Green.

"When you get two MAC teams like that it's always going to be aggressive," Astudillo said. "I think there was a lot of aggressiveness on both sides. Having a couple of those yellows come out when they came out was a little surprising but I don't know if it was a bad thing."

The constant rain had surprisingly little effect. Rain-forced errors occurred only occasionally and didn't play a major roll in the game's outcome.

"It slows down the precision of both teams," Astudillo said. "It was the first time we have ever played on the wet grounds here so now we know how it feels, but I don't think that there were that many balls that were lost."

While being held scoreless was disheartening for the Bulls, the game gives Buffalo a gauge for how much improvement is necessary before heading into the MAC tournament.

"They are for real and obviously we need to play with more precision in the middle and try to come out of the middle with prettier balls," Astudillo said. "Once we're up on top, we need to connect with each other. I don't know if we're finding our support well enough."

Senior Mbwana Johnson agreed with Astudillo about the team's problems in the midfield and hopes to use the loss as a steppingstone towards defeating the Zips in the postseason.

"They played a different style from the top," Johnson said. "There was a gap between the midfield and the defense and we just couldn't close it up. It was a general breakdown and we just couldn't adapt in time. Winning is an attitude and this loss is not going to send us into the gutter. We're going to get up, work hard in practice and come back for them."

Buffalo will host Bowling Green (2-7-1) on Friday in its second MAC game of the season. The game is slated to start at 7 p.m. at UB Stadium.