On Friday night, Seton Hall hosted the Akron Zips in an important BIG EAST matchup.
Going into the game, both teams were ranked top 25 in the NCAA Division I RPI Rankings, which are used for selection of at-large bids for the NCAA Championship Tournament.
This game also had consequences for qualification in the BIG EAST Conference Tournament, with the number of teams qualifying being reduced to just four.
Both teams are on the cusp of qualifying but have more work to do to secure a place, making this game vital in which team came out on top.
The Pirates came into the game with a 5-2-5 record, 2-0-2 in conference, having most recently drawn with Villanova 1-1.
Under the lights at Owen T. Carroll Field, the game started with an early goal by Akron as the Pirates seemed to be on the back foot.
A long ball from Akron was collected by the Zips’s forward Stefan Dobrijevic, who passed it through to teammate Remi Agunbiade who sent it into the back of the net.
Pirate Sam Björk was frustrated with his performance as he was meant to be marking Dobrijevic but had lost him.
“[Björk] was not happy with himself on the goal that we conceded,” said SHU head coach Andreas Lindberg. “But then he came up big with the shot which Mikkel rebounded. He was also up against one of the best players in the conference.”
Lindberg references the shot by Björk which led to SHU’s equalizing goal, ultimately the final goal of the game.
SHU made a few substitutions in the 30th minute including, Mikkel Lejbowicz, who has been active in many games for the Pirates when subbed in.
This game was no different, as less than ten minutes into his time on the pitch, he collected the rebound from a Björk shot, which was saved by the Zips’s goalkeeper and put into the back of the net.
The goal was extensively reviewed by the officials before being declared a goal and tying the score 1-1 at the half.
The second half grew even more physical with 11 fouls and four yellow cards in total. Particularly the Pirates’ Agustin Resch and the Zips’s Remi Agunbiade frequently collided and were ultimately pulled aside by the head official who could be heard telling them each “Stop doing that,” followed by “Let’s play fair.”
In the 61st minute, after a SHU corner, Akron had a massive chance where three attackers broke free of the Pirates’ defense, leaving only goalkeeper Matias Molina and defender Liam Guske outnumbered.
Guske proved invaluable in this moment, making a massively important tackle on the attacking player to end their run.
“We were saying that’s probably the biggest tackle of the year,” Coach Lindberg said of the defensive move.
SHU also missed out on a vital chance in the 73rd minute when Nico Rubio cleared two defenders to take a shot that went over the crossbar.
Coach Lindberg had a lot of praise for both programs post-game.
“Akron are one of the best teams in the country and have been one of the best teams in the country for a really long time,” he said. “And the fact that we can go toe-to-toe with them, it says a lot about our program too.”
Next up the Pirates will begin a trifecta of away games in Bethlehem, PA for their final non-conference game of the regular season facing the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.
Ace Crawford is a writer for The Setonian’s Sports section. They can be reached at grace.crawford@student.shu.edu.
