by It was a tale of two halves at Infocision Stadium in Akron as we saw a defensive slug fest turn into a display of dominance in the third quarter. The Miami Red Hawks defeated the Akron Zips 20-7 when only being up by three in the first half.
The Zips started fast, similar to how they looked last week in their win against Central Michigan. Finley looked strong with his offensive line playing tough in front of him. A balance of the run and pass game appeared as if Akron’s offense might dominate the day.
The first drive appeared to be an illusion for hopeful fans; a tipped pass resulted in an interception that landed in a Red Hawk’s talons.
This was the closest the Zips would get to scoring until they scored a meaningless touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Miami struggled as well; they had some promising drives but would fail to get into the endzone until the second half of the game.
DeQuan Finn and Jordan Brunson unlocked a dynamic run attack that baffled the Akron front seven. Finn, with his speed and fast cuts, Brunson running defenders over with ease, caused the Akron defense to wear down as the game went on.
Miami took a field goal lead in the first half and maintained it into the second. Akron would slowly fall out of the game as the passing attack from Finn started to awaken from being dormant.
A one-yard run was the first of the offensive explosion from D’Shawntae Jones, a 20-yard pass from Finn set this up after struggling to hit the deep ball all day.
Finn hit his longest pass of the day when he found Kam Perry all by himself for a 60-yard touchdown pass to extend their lead over Akron. This came on the following possession as Akron failed to get anything going on offense in between the Miami scoring drives.
Miami scored one more score with a field goal to create a comfortable three-score lead. Akron’s offense finally found itself, but it was too late. Finley found Israel Pork for the long-awaited touchdown; unfortunately, the Zips couldn’t get the stop and would see the clock run out behind them for the loss.
In what felt like a promising Saturday for the Zips ended in a loss that fans have seen a Summa Field more often than not over the years.
