Men’s Soccer Back on the Pitch as Akron Comes to Huntington

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall men's soccer team's five-match homestand comes to an end Saturday at 7 p.m., as the Akron Zips visit Hoops Family Field.

The Thundering Herd enters the match with a 4-1-1 record and the Zips come in at 0-5.

Match Details
Live Stats: SIDEARM
Live Video: HERDVISION/CUSAtv with Jake Griffith on the call
Marshall Radio: 88.1 WMUL-FM and online www.marshall.edu/wmul
Series History: 11th all-time meeting – Akron leads 7-1-2
Last Meeting: Nov. 1, 2017 in Akron – No. 5 Akron won 2-0

Marshall is coming off its first loss of the season, 3-2, to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros, Tuesday night at Hoops Family Field. The Herd was forced to play a man down for most of the second half. Sophomore Vinicius Fernandes scored his first goal of the season in the first half and freshman Bleno Cruz scored his first career goal with one second remaining in regulation.

Junior Pedro Dolabella leads the team in scoring with three goals and seven points. Junior Jamil Roberts is second with two goals, two assists and six total points. Freshman Milo Yosef also has two goals this year. Marshall has outscored the opposition 12-6.

Redshirt senior keeper Paulo Pita has been in the net all 560 minutes this season. He has allowed six goals, has a 0.96 goals against average, tallied 15 saves and sports a .714 save percentage. Pita has two shutouts this year and five in his Marshall career.

Opponent
The Akron Zips began the year ranked in the top five but have had a rough start to the season. The Zips went 15-7-2 in 2018, won the Mid-American Conference Tournament, and played all the way to the National Championship game losing 1-0 to Maryland. Akron has had a tough schedule to begin the year against Xavier, No. 3 Stanford, Creighton, No. 14 Maryland and Pittsburgh. It is the first time in program history the Zips have started a season 0-5.

Akron has been outscored 8-2 with David Egbo and Christian Lue Young as the only players to score. The Zips have one player on the team who is familiar with Marshall in redshirt senior transfer Tom Smart. The defender spent 2015-18 at New Mexico in Conference USA, but Smart had one season of eligibility left and the New Mexico program was closed at the end of the 2018 season. He played 54 matches across three seasons for the Lobos and has appeared in four matches so far for Akron.

Redshirt junior keeper Tor Saunders has been in the net for the Zips this season after having just six career appearances coming into the season. Saunders has allowed eight goals, has a 1.60 goals against average, 17 saves and a .680 save percentage.

After playing five-straight matches at home, Marshall hits the road to Norfolk, Va., to take on Old Dominion on Friday Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. The Herd plays two more home games before going on a long, six-match road swing from Oct. 12-29.

For all of the latest information on the Marshall men's soccer team, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdMSoccer, Facebook at Marshall University Soccer and on www.herdzone.com.

To follow all Thundering Herd sports and get live stats, schedules, and free live audio, download the Marshall Athletics App for iOS or Android!

---HerdZone.com---

Men’s Soccer Back on the Pitch as Akron Comes to Huntington

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Players Mentioned

Bleno Cruz

Pedro Dolabella

Vinicius Fernandes

Paulo Pita

Jamil Roberts

Milo Yosef

Marshall University Athletics