2018 Akron Zips men's soccer team

The 2018 Akron Zips men's soccer team represented The University of Akron during the 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. The Zips, played in the Mid-American Conference.

2018 Akron Zips men's soccer
MAC Tournament Champions
NCAA Tournament, Runners-Up
Conference	Mid-American Conference
U. Soc. Coaches poll	No. 2
TopDrawerSoccer.com	No. 2
Record	15–7–2 (1–2–1 MAC)
Head coach	Jared Embick (6th season)
Assistant coaches	Leo Chappel (4th season) Ger Coppinger (4th season) T.J. Kolba (4th season)
Home stadium	FirstEnergy Stadium–Cub Cadet Field
Seasons ← 2017 2019 →

2018 Mid-American Conference men's soccer standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 22 West Virginia +	5	–	0	–	0			14	–	7	–	0
Bowling Green	2	–	1	–	2			6	–	7	–	4
Western Michigan	1	–	1	–	2			11	–	6	–	3
No. 2 Akron ‡	1	–	2	–	1			15	–	7	–	2
SIU Edwardsville	1	–	3	–	1			9	–	5	–	4
Northern Illinois	1	–	4	–	0			8	–	9	–	1
‡ – 2018 MAC Tournament champion + – Invited to the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship As of December 11, 2018 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches

Background

Main article: 2017 Akron Zips men's soccer team

Player movement

Departures

A program record of 19 players departed the program following the 2017 season. Most players either graduated or declared for the MLS SuperDraft while others transferred to local NCAA Division II soccer programs.

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for departure
João Moutinho	2	DF	6'1"	170	Freshman	Lisbon, POR	Declared for MLS SuperDraft. Selected 1st overall by Los Angeles FC. Signed with club.
Nick Hinds	3	DF	5'8"	150	Sophomore	Plantation, FL	Signed with Seattle Sounders FC 2
Niko de Vera	4	DF	5'5"	140	Senior	Camas, WA	Declared for MLS SuperDraft. Selected 28th overall by New York Red Bulls. Signed with New York Red Bulls II.
Marc Alexander	5	DF	6'0"	180	Freshman	Pittsburgh, PA	Transferred to Hartford.
Sam Gainford	7	FW	6'1"	168	RS Senior	Whitehaven, ENG	Graduated.
Stuart Holthusen	9	FW	6'1"	151	Senior	Auckland, NZL	Declared for MLS SuperDraft. Selected 64th overall by Portland Timbers. Did not sign with club.
Manuel Cordeiro	10	MF	5'9"	153	RS Senior	Porto, POR	Graduated
Reggie Laryea	12	MF	5'11"	151	Sophomore	Toronto, ON	Left the program. Signed with Sigma FC
Pau Belana	13	MF	5'11"	162	RS Senior	Barcelona, ESP	Graduated
Shane Wiedt	16	DF	6'3"	180	RS Junior	Akron, OH	Transferred to Pittsburgh.
Nate Shultz	18	DF	6'0"	160	Senior	Mayfield, OH	Declared for MLS SuperDraft. Selected 48th overall by LA Galaxy. Signed with LA Galaxy II
Dener Dos Santos	19	MF	5'8"	154	RS Senior	Joinville, BRA	Graduated
Alex Mapp	20	DF	6'0"	175	RS Freshman	Medina, OH	Transferred to Ashland.
Jackson Crawford	22	DF	5'9"	164	RS Freshman	Massillon, OH	Transferred to Ashland.
Barth-Luther Mouafo	23	MF	6'0"	197	RS Senior	Douala, CMR	Graduated
Nick Costa	28	GK	6'0"	215	RS Sophomore	North Royalton, OH	Transferred to Ashland.
Codie Lynd	30	GK	5'9"	175	Freshman	Belleville, IL	Transferred to Maryville.
Nate Brown	31	DF	6'2"	162	Senior	Scarborough, ON	Graduated

Transfers

Name	Nat.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Notes
Dennis Cole	SLE	5'7"	143	Sophomore	Freetown, SLE	Transferred from Sacramento State.
Abi Mohamed	SOM	5'11"	151	Senior	Westerville, OH	Transferred from Ohio State.
Daniel Oliveira	POR	5'7"	145	RS Freshman	Lisbon, POR	Transferred from Técnico.
Diogo Pacheco	POR	5'10"	160	RS Sophomore	Lisbon, POR	Transferred from Lusófona.
Leonard Sohn	CAN	5'10"	151	Junior	Richmond Hill, ON	Transferred from Manhattan.
Peter Zecca	USA	5'10"	162	Sophomore	Weston, MA	Transferred from St. John's.

Recruits

Name	Nat.	Hometown	Club	TDS Rating
Ahmed Allen	USA	Stafford, VA	Bethesda SC
Dion Akhigbe	NGA	Copley, OH	OYSA North Challenger
Colin Biros	USA	Canton, OH	Columbus Crew U-17
Ricky Ceballos	MEX	Mexico City, MEX	UNAM U-20
Pol Hernández	ESP	Teià, ESP	Espanyol U-18
Nick McCausland	USA	New Franklin, OH	Cleveland Internationals
Marco Milanese	ITA	Isernia, ITA	Napoli U-17
Ivan Nikolić	SER	Toronto, ON	Sigma U-20
Carlo Ritaccio	ITA	Westbury, NY	BW Gottschee
Nick Sibila	GER	Munich, GER	Deisenhofen U-19
Sam Tojaga	USA	Erie, PA	Real Salt Lake U-17

Squad information

Roster

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  GER Ben Lundt 2 DF  ESP Pol Hernández 3 DF  ITA Carlo Ritaccio 4 DF  ITA Marco Milanese 5 DF  CAN Leonard Sohn 6 MF  USA Skye Harter 7 FW  ERI Ezana Kahsay 8 DF  USA Morgan Hackworth 9 FW  NGA David Egbo 10 MF  ITA Marco Micaletto 11 FW  CAN Marcel Zajac 12 FW  USA Colin Biros 14 MF  POR Diogo Pacheco 15 FW  USA Braden Petno 16 MF  USA Sam Tojaga 17 DF  USA Joe Korb

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 DF  SRB Ivan Nikolić 19 MF  CAN Faisal Ghaffur 20 DF  USA Ahmed Allen 21 MF  USA Christian Lue Young 22 MF  SLE Dennis Cole 23 DF  POR Daniel Oliveira 24 GK  USA Tor Saunders 25 DF  USA Daniel Strachan 26 MF  SOM Abdi Mohamed 27 DF  IRL Declan Watters 28 MF  NGA Dion Akhigbe 29 DF  USA Nick McCausland 30 GK  GER Nick Sibila 31 GK  MEX Ricky Ceballos 32 FW  USA Peter Zecca

Coaching staff

Front office
Athletic Director	Larry Williams
Associate Athletic Director	Mary Lu Gribschaw
Associate Athletic Director	George Van Horne
Faculty Representative	Matthew Juravich
Senior Administrative Assistant	Kathy Rex
Coaching staff
Head coach	Jared Embick
Assistant coach	Leo Chappel
Goalkeepers coach	Ger Coppinger
Assistant coach	T.J. Kolba

Last updated: December 5, 2018
Source: GoZips.com

Schedule

Date Time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site City, State
Exhibition
August 11* 7:00 p.m.	No. 2	No. 11 Denver	T 1–1		Cub Cadet Field (1,126) Akron, OH
August 13* 7:00 p.m.	No. 2	Cleveland State	W 2–0		Cub Cadet Field (1,264) Akron, OH
August 17* 7:00 p.m.	No. 2	vs. No. 2 Indiana	T 1–1		Bishop D'Arcy Stadium (3,193) Fort Wayne, IN
Regular Season
August 24* 7:00 p.m., ESPN3	No. 2	No. 9 Butler	T 2–2 2OT	0–0–1	Cub Cadet Field (2,579) Akron, OH
August 27* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+	No. 2	No. 17 NC State	L 0–2	0–1–1	Cub Cadet Field (1,474) Akron, OH
September 1* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+	No. 2	Pittsburgh	W 1–0	1–1–1	Cub Cadet Field (1,790) Akron, OH
September 7* 10:30 p.m., WACDN	No. 12	at No. 24 Seattle U	L 1–2	1–2–1	Championship Field (514) Seattle, WA
September 9* 4:30 p.m., P12N	No. 12	at No. 9 Washington	L 0–2	1–3–1	Husky Soccer Stadium (900) Seattle, WA
September 15* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+		Canisius	W 10–0	2–3–1	Cub Cadet Field (1,585) Akron, OH
September 20* 10:00 p.m., YouTube		at Grand Canyon	W 1–0	3–3–1	GCU Stadium (1,638) Phoenix, AZ
September 26* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+		at VCU	W 4–3 OT	4–3–1	Sports Backers Stadium (682) Richmond, VA
October 1* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+		Syracuse	L 1–3	4–4–1	Cub Cadet Field (1,598) Akron, OH
MAC Tournament
November 6 4:00 p.m., ESPN3	(4)	(5) SIUE First Round	W 2–1	8–6–2	Cub Cadet Field (360) Akron, OH
November 9 5:40 p.m., ESPN3	(4)	at (1) No. 12 West Virginia Semifinals	W 3–1	9–6–2	Dlesk Stadium (250) Morgantown, WV
November 11 1:00 p.m., ESPN3	(4) No. 24	vs. (3) Western Michigan MAC Championship	W 3–0	10–6–2	Dlesk Stadium (94) Morgantown, WV
NCAA Tournament
November 15* 7:00 p.m., ESPN3	No. 16	Rider First Round	W 3–1	11–6–2	Cub Cadet Field (421) Akron, OH
November 18* 2:00 p.m., ACCN Extra	No. 16	vs. (16) No. 20 Syracuse Second Round	W 3–1	12–6–2	Beyer-Small '76 Field (421) Hamilton, NY
November 25* 5:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 10	at (1) No. 2 Wake Forest Third Round	W 1–0	13–6–2	Spry Stadium (1,686) Winston-Salem, NC
November 30* 9:00 p.m., P12N	No. 4	at (6) No. 2 Stanford Quarterfinals	W 3–2	14–6–2	Cagan Stadium (1,405) Stanford, CA
December 7* 8:00 p.m., ESPNU	No. 2	vs. No. 4 Michigan State College Cup	W 5–1	15–6–2	Harder Stadium (4,988) Santa Barbara, CA
December 9* 8:00 p.m., ESPN2	No. 2	vs. (11) No. 3 Maryland National Championship	L 0–1	15–7–2	Harder Stadium Santa Barbara, CA
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from TopDrawer Soccer. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern Time.

Statistics

Individual Player Statistics (As of December 2, 2017)^[1]

Player	App	Goals	Asst	Points	Shots	Shot%	SOG	SOG%	GW	Pk-Att	GA	Saves	SO
Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Forwards