Seton Hall Salvages a Point in High-Powered Matchup Versus Akron

Published: Saturday, October 18, 2025

by Jacob Marcial

The Seton Hall Pirates (5-2-6) drew with the Akron Zips (8-3-3) by a score of 1-1 at Owen T. Carroll Field on Friday night.

After a draw against Villanova the previous weekend, the Pirates looked to get back in the win column at home against a strong opponent in Akron. Both teams had recently spent time in the United Soccer Coaches’ rankings, and both also received votes in the most recent poll.

The Zips received possession first, and came out with an intensity that made it hard for the Pirates to keep up. In just the 7th minute, a ball from Ashton Kamdem was played off the chest of Stefan Dobrijevic behind the Pirates’ back line, who passed it to Remi Agunbiade in the middle of the box. Agunbiade was all alone when he tallied the first goal of the game past the reach of Seton Hall goalkeeper Matias Molina to put Akron up 1-0.

For the first 20 minutes, the Pirates struggled heavily to maintain possession for longer than a few passes. The lone offensive attack for Seton Hall came on a corner kick in the 9th minute, which was immediately punched out by Akron keeper Mitch Budler. Akron maintained heavy pressure on all levels of the field, and the Pirates could not seem to break through their defense.

The turning point came when Agunbiade came out of the game due to injury in the 19th minute. From that point, the Pirates slowly began to build longer offensive possessions and push further and further into Akron territory. After a few unsuccessful free kicks, the Pirates finally broke through in the 39th minute. 

Sam Bjork made a run down the right side of the Akron box and took a shot that was saved by Budler, but deflected right to the foot of Mikkell Lejbowicz who shot into a vacant net to tie the game. Lejbowicz was initially called offside, but after a lengthy review, the ruling was overturned to level the match at one going into half.

Coming out of the break, Akron returned to the same level of intensity they had in the first half. Both teams picked up a yellow card in the first 10 minutes of the half. Akron’s best shot of the second half came in the 56th minute, when a ball off the foot of Jack Roman from just outside the box hit the crossbar, then went on to be cleared by the Pirates.

The Zips defense was able to stifle any Pirate attacks for the majority of the second half, and their offense put pressure on the Seton Hall back line seemingly every time they had possession. On two separate occasions, an Akron shot came within inches of hitting the back net, but went just wide of the Seton Hall goal.

Akron out-shot Seton Hall eight to five in the second half, and had five corner kicks to the Pirates’ one. However, they were unable to find the winning goal as the Pirates’ defense adopted a bend-don’t-break style for much of the second half under heavy pressure. 

After a physical second half filled with huge chances for Akron, the teams split the points after the final horn sounded, with the first half score of 1-1 holding until the end.

The Pirates will be back in action on Tuesday when they hit the road to play Lehigh, as they will look to extend their five-game undefeated streak.

Jacob Marcial can be reached at jacob.marcial@student.shu.edu.

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