Paiva Comes Through in Final Moments as Zips Earn Dramatic Victory Over Xavier

Saturday, October 24

Akron, Ohio

6:00 PM

University of Akron

9-1-4, 2-1-3

No. 14 Xavier

9-1-4, 2-1-3

Team	1	2	Final F
Xavier	0	1	1
Akron	0	2	2

Game Notes Postgame Press Conference

Matthew Paiva celebrates following his late goal against No. 14 Xavier.

Photo by: Jeff Harwell

October 24 | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Noah Tylutki, Associate Director of Athletics Communications

AKRON, Ohio — Matthew Paiva felt it — a belief in which him and the team have shared since the season's infancy.

Tied 1-1 against No. 14 Xavier with less than two minutes to go, the senior was waiting just outside the box. Thomas O'Rourke had shot a ball that deflected off a Musketeer defender and skirted up to Farrel Ngongang, who used his head to feed the ball to Paiva. He kicked the ball towards the goal, as it took one hop past the keeper and into the back of the net sending the FirstEnergy Stadium crowd of nearly a thousand into a frenzy.

The score marked the eighth game-winning or game-tying goal in the final 10 minutes of a match this season.

"I think we had belief as a collective group," Paiva said. "I feel like we've been really good at that this year. We've come from behind and scored late goals, so it was no different today.

"I just felt it, and I stepped up to the opportunity and scored the goal for the team."

Paiva's moment came just a minute and a half following a devastating Xavier goal off a free kick. Jose Pedro, who started 15 games for Akron as a freshman last season before becoming a Musketeer, took the chance. The ball went right through goalkeeper Brett Kaminski's hands and found twine.

"We showed a lot of resiliency at the end when they tied it late," Akron head coach Jared Embick said. "A lot of weaker mentality teams would've fallen apart, but you saw us go right back down and score. We've been doing it all year. This team's been resilient, and we've taken a lot of other team's best punches and have stayed standing and then punched back at the end and found a way. I couldn't have been prouder of the effort of the group."

Neither team scored in the first half, but the Zips held a 12-2 advantage in shots during the stanza, half of which came within the match's first 21 minutes.

"We had a really good week of training," Paiva said. "We tried to really focus on starting fast and strong, and I think we did that. Even though we didn't score, we were creating chances, defending well and continuing to build confidence going into the second half."

About 10 minutes into the second half, Xavier got a goal on a header off a free kick. However, a yellow card was awarded before the kick and the referee had not blown the whistle prior to the boot which disallowed the goal.

Akron finally broke through in the 71st minute, this time from the right foot of O'Rourke. After a pass was intercepted at midfield, Roman grabbed it on the wing and played it inside to O'Rourke. As the ball pinballed off a defender, the junior proceeded to keep with it and bury the ball in the lower right corner.

Both teams rattled off two shots before Pedro's free kick goal. Kaminski made four saves in net, while Jonny Mennell tallied eight for Xavier. Akron outshot the Musketeers, 24-10, in the match and had 11 corner kick opportunities.

With two BIG EAST matches left in the regular season (at Villanova and at Marquette), the Zips sit tied with Xavier for second in the Midwest division standings with nine points. Georgetown (18) and Creighton (12) sit atop of their respective divisions (winner of each division gets an automatic berth for the BIG EAST Tournament), while the next two finishers regardless of division will fill out the final two spots. UConn also has nine points as a member of the East division.

"We have to control what we can control when we get into these must win games at the end of the year," Embick said. "There's going to be some emotions and plays that go against us, but we can control our attitude, effort, mentality and the way we think of the next play. You stay on task until the time is up.

"I think they've been embracing that message all year, and I think you saw another example of that today."

Up Next
The Zips will head to Philadelphia to face Villanova on Halloween at 1 p.m. before their regular season finale in Milwaukee against Marquette on Friday, November 6.