by Akron earned their first win of the season against FCS opponent Morgan State 24-21 in what can be called a miracle finish. Akron finished both halves with the lead, this was a sloppy game by the Zips, three turnovers on offense and a fumble on defense gave Morgan State every chance to win the game. The Zips defense stayed strong with three turnovers of their own in which two of them resulted in a touchdown. “now they are taking this thing to a new level…with the guys we got from the port and Junior college”. Said coach Joe Moorhead about his defense.
Defense was the story for the Zips after DJ Irons was subbed out for Jeff Undercuffler. “we were ineffective with DJ” Said Moorhead about his starting QB, he continued about Undercuffler “He provided a spark… you can’t turn the ball over three times”.
Akron looked impeccable on their first defensive possession thanks to the impact CJ Nunnally IV made at the defensive end position. On three pass plays Nunnally IV had two sacks and a hurry that led to an incompletion. Things only got better for the Zips defense, their punt block unit did exactly what they were designed to do. Noel Roach got to the punter and blocked the ball, the Zips recovered the ball inside the Morgan State 10 yard line.
Akron couldn’t fully capitalize on this chance, they only managed to get a 22 yard field goal from Noah Perez. This gave Akron the early three to nothing lead early in the first quarter. This became the end of Akron’s good fortunes for a while.
DJ Irons struggle for the Zips as he tried to run away from the Morgan State pass rush but failed to do so. This resulted in the Zips ending up in bad field position and Morgan State capitalizing and taking the lead with a touchdown.
This was the most we saw out of Morgan States offense in the first half. Akron got on a roll at the end of the second quarter that helped them regain the lead going into the half. Jeff Undercuffler gave the Zips a spark as he connected with star WR Alex Adams to regain the lead from Morgan State.
Akron’s defense continued to handy work of the offense as they contributed to the lead with a Devonte Golden-Nelson pick six to head into the half.
Akron seized all the momentum for the moment, things flipped during the third quarter. Morgan State two touchdowns thanks to their defense earning two interceptions that put their offense on Akron’s side of the field. This gave Morgan State a 21 to 17 lead.
Akron’s offense improved as they headed into the fourth quarter by obtaining a few first downs, these drives still did not result in a touchdown.
Akrons defense held strong in the fourth quarter, this gave Undercuffler and the offense five minutes to drive down the field to score. The offense failed to complete their drive, Undercuffler threw his third interception on the day as it looked to give Morgan State the ball game.
Akron’s defense decided they would take care of business themselves, on a third and long Morgan State had a pitch to the running back go rogue and end up on the turf. Bryan McCoy picked up the fumble and rumbled his way across the goal line.
McCoy’s miracle touchdown with seconds left and no timeouts left gave Akron the lead and eventually won them the game.
Stats:
Passing
Jeff Undercuffler 17 for 25, 3 int, 1 td
Receiving
Jasaiah Gathings 8 TAR, 6 CAT, 78 yds,
Alex Adams 8 TAR, 6 CAT, 75 yds, 1 td
Rushing
Drake Anderson 5 rush, 27 yds
Lorenzo Lingard 7 rush, 24 yds
