Broncos Tame The Zips Quickly in the Return of MAC Football

by Kyle Molinelli · November 5, 2020

By Jamya Kyle

On the warm Wednesday night of October 4th, the Akron Zips opened their football season up against the Western Michigan Broncos. Due to Covid-19, the MAC Conference will only have a six-game schedule this year limiting the amount of contact with coaches and players. Each team is scheduled to play five games within its division, and one team outside of their division. This would be the first matchup for both teams starting this season. Even though there is only to be half of a season this year, there is no doubt that coaches and players are happy to be playing some games instead of none this season.

After a rough season last year, Akron was ready to come out and compete. Which in the first quarter, the Zips held the Broncos to a 7-3 lead for quite some time after Zach Gibson made a 14-yard throw to his teammate Michael Mathison for a touchdown. Leading into the second quarter the Zips added two more field goals onto the scoreboard, which put them at 13 points. Heading into halftime the scoreboard was 30-13, in favor of the Broncos.

Entering the third quarter the Zips offense and defense broke down quickly. The Zips struggled to stop the Broncos on defense, while the Zips kept getting stopped by Western Michigan’s. Akron could not stop the Broncos quarterback from making plays. The Broncos added 21 points in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Zips continued to struggle to find ways to score. The ability to find open players was not there for the team. Akron got outrun by the Broncos on various plays. However, one bright spot for the squad was Bubba Arslanian, who showed up and showed out in the fourth quarter on the defensive side. Arslanian ended the game with 6/3 tackles for the Zips, being one of the few highlights for the team.

The final score was 58-13. This is only the beginning of the season still, and we will see next Tuesday how the Zips recover after this game as they will take on The Ohio University Bobcats at 7:00 pm in Athens.