The men's soccer team defeated the Akron Zips 1-0 on Oct. 7. The shutout victory, MSU's eighth in 10 games, gave junior goalkeeper Zach Bennett sole possession of the school record for most career shutouts.
"To break the shutout record and against a good team like Akron, it means a lot," Bennett said. "I think I've worked pretty hard, that's what I came to Michigan State to potentially do...it's a special moment not only for me but for the whole defense and the whole team."
The first half was all too familiar for MSU — a mostly defensive battle with few offensive opportunities for either team. The Spartan offense struggled to produce a goal while the defense, as it has most of the year, gave up nothing.
That was the case for the offense until the 32:32 mark when junior midfielder Jason Stacy sent one into the back of the net off of an assist by senior forward Adam Montague. The goal was Stacy's second of the season to go with his three assists.
The goal by Stacy gave the Spartans a goal in the first half for only the third time this season, with one of the other two games in which MSU scored a goal in the first half also coming from Stacy on Sept. 19 against Maryland.
"(First half goals) just come with opportunity, its a matter of creating good quality chances," Stacy said. "We were fortunate enough to do that a couple (of) times this season, I think we need to do that more, I think that when we do get the first half goals we tend to get results."
There were only 11 shots between both teams in the first half, with six for MSU and five for Akron. Despite limited opportunities for the MSU offense, they were able to take advantage of one of those chances to grab the first half lead.
The first major play of the second half saw Bennett make a great save. After a MSU turnover, Akron freshman midfielder Richie Laryea was all alone sprinting with the ball towards the MSU goal, firing one towards the right side of the goal before Bennett ultimately made the save.
"Great save by (Zach Bennett) on the counter in the corner," head coach Damon Rensing said.
Heavy rain began to pour down with roughly 20 minutes left in the game, capping off a strange day for weather in which the game began partially sunny, before the dark clouds that eventually brought the rain rolled over DeMartin Stadium.
The Spartans didn't get a shot off in the second half until the 77:09 mark, but didn't need to as the first half goal by Stacy was enough to earn the win.
"It mean's a lot (to get the win), Akron's a really good team, we were really itching to get back here, back home, and (to) get going again," Bennett said.
"Today we didn't play our best soccer but we really gritted out a (win), we found a way to score, we found a way to shut the team out...we found a way to win and I think that is what we can take moving forward."
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