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UCF rallies late to top Zips
-Orlando, FL

Marshall Cooper’s first game as the Zips’ head man could not have started any better. Jawon Chisholm busted a run to the outside left for sixteen yards, and the 16.5 point favorite Knights busted a coverage on the subsequent play, allowing quarterback Kyle Pohl to hit Keith Sconiers for a 54-yard touchdown pass. It took the Akron offense all of 55 seconds to score the season’s first points.
The defense that Cooper – the bold hire brought in from the high school ranks – promised to bring the table showed their teeth, and with 12:43 left to go in the half, Chisholm capped off a 10 play, 73-yard drive with a bullish two-yard plunge, putting the Zips up 14-0.
“It was definitely the start we were looking for,” Cooper said after the game. “Unfortunately the wagon just came unhinged.”
With only 3:46 remaining before the break, Storm Johnson began knocking down that wagon, with a 24-yard touchdown scamper. Johnson would finish with one more touchdown to go along with 162 rushing yards on only seventeen carries.
“We really committed to stopping the aerial attack,” defensive coordinator Chuck Amato said. “Blake [Bortles] is a real player who can do some serious damage. It was just tough to shut down him and that back.”
Bortles was relatively quiet, throwing for only 187 yards with a touchdown to go along with a third quarter interception, thrown to junior cornerback Donte Williams at the Akron one-yard line.
“I knew we had to step up and make a play,” Williams said. “They were really harassing Kyle[Pohl] and the rest of our offense; I had to let them know we had their back.”
All the momentum swung, however, when – two plays later – Pohl overshot Jerrod Dillard and was intercepted, leading immediately to Bortles tossing the tying touchdown pass.
After trading field goals, perhaps the biggest play of the game came with 8:53 left in the contest. Facing a fourth and one on his own 48, Cooper showed off some of that high school flair and dialed up a fake punt. It appeared to be a brilliant move as punter Zach Paul ran past the first down line with ease; yet appeared to be foolish when a hit from Thomas Niles jarred the ball loose, and Sean Maag sprinted 53 yards untouched for what would prove to be the game winning score.
“It was a rough break,” Cooper said. “Zach [Paul] did what he needed to do, the play did what it was supposed to do, we just didn’t finish it to the whistle. I could say that’s the theme of the game, on that play, on the 14-0 start, on scoring only three in the second half: we just have to learn to finish.”
Chisholm was clearly the player of the game for Akron, rushing for 124 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, as well as 56 yards on four catches. Safety Bre Ford and linebacker CJ Mizell played well also for what is looking to be a stout defense (or so Coach Cooper’s coaching history would promise), racking up eight and seven tackles, respectively.
The Zips head back home next week to take on James Madison as Marshall Cooper hopes to get his first career win at the college level.


Akron Dynasty:
2013: 0-1