Soccer falls short of UB's first MAC title in shootout after overtime

To say Sunday's Mid-American Conference championship game was dramatic would be an understatement.

A defensive game in which UB men's soccer played 110 scoreless minutes, including two overtime periods, against the nationally ranked No. 5 Akron Zips, the championship was decided in a shootout in which both teams answered each other's goals for six consecutive shots.

Unfortunately for the Bulls, junior forward Andrae Clarke's last shot was denied by Akron goalkeeper Evan Bush, giving the Zips a 7-6-shootout victory and the MAC Championship trophy.

All the men of the UB soccer team can do now is wait to see if they have a shot at a national title.

"Now all we can do is sit back and hope to get an NCAA bid," said head coach John Astudillo. "We have a good amount of wins and really played well in the postseason, hopefully to gain some recognition in the rankings."

Simply participating in a final game is worthy of recognition. Although the championship goes to Akron (17-1-2 overall, 5-0-1 MAC) and they automatically get a bid for the NCAA tournament, the game is actually scored as tie for each team.

With Akron's top national ranking, a tie against a tough Zips team on their home field should boost UB's chances for a bid when the selection show takes place on Monday.

"It's always difficult to prepare for a game where you face one of the best nationally ranked teams at their hometown," Astudillo said. "First, we needed to take a much more detailed look at their best players, and then try to create favorable match ups for our team."

Astudillo went on to explain that one of the main goals going into Sunday's game was to neutralize Akron's forwards Sinisa Ubiparipovic and Ross McKenzie.

"We took care of both of them," Astudillo said. "(Junior midfielder Erik) Jannimagi did a great job containing Sinisa, and that is really something that no one has been able to do because he's been pretty much scoring on everyone."

The Bulls (15-3-2 overall, 2-2-1 MAC) shutout all three of the teams they faced in the postseason, including an upset in a 2-0 win on Friday against second-seeded Northern Illinois (12-7-2, 4-1-0 MAC) to send UB to the championship game.

Friday's game was a dominating performance for the Bulls. Clarke gave UB an early lead with a well-executed header off the cross from senior forward Greg Galemore. Late in the second half, Jannimagi tacked on an insurance goal off a fumbled save from the Northern Illinois goalkeeper.

"We were really on, both offensively and defensively against Northern Illinois," Astudillo said. "It was almost poetic justice that Northern Illinois beat us the first time despite the fact that I felt we played better than them. This time we were able to beat them in the air and come up with some great plays."

Northern Illinois and Akron each came away with a win during the regular season against UB. However, the Bulls left the harsh feelings behind and proceeded to compile a stellar performance in each postseason game they played.

The last time that Akron and UB went to overtime was before shootouts were part of the game rules in the 1998 MAC semifinals, where Akron won 3-2 in triple overtime.

"I'm just so proud to be associated with these guys and the effort they put out there," Astudillo said. "As far as a championship game goes, it was just such a great game to watch, although as a coach you get a little nervous. It's been a great season thus far and we're just hoping that we can get a second chance."

The Bulls will find out if they receive a bid for the NCAA tournament when the announcement is made Monday at 4:00 p.m. on ESPNews.