Kent State retained the Wagon Wheel on Saturday afternoon, riding a dominant second half from quarterback Dru DeShields to beat Akron 35-20 in the rivals’ annual Mid-American Conference meeting at Dix Stadium in Kent.
Akron struck first, with Jordan Gant scoring on a 6-yard run in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead. Kent State answered late in the second quarter when DeShields found Wayne Harris on a 1-yard touchdown pass, sending the game into halftime tied 7-7.
Gant scored again on a 6-yard run early in the third quarter to put Akron back in front 14-7, but the rest of the afternoon belonged to the Golden Flashes. DeShields hit Harris on a 55-yard touchdown pass to tie the game, then found Hunter Hopperton on a 2-yard score late in the third to give Kent State its first lead at 21-17 after an Akron field goal.
DeShields connected with Harris for a third touchdown, a 19-yard score early in the fourth quarter, and then ran one in himself from a yard out to stretch the lead to 35-17. In all, DeShields threw four touchdown passes — three of them to Harris — and added a rushing touchdown.
Akron’s Aidan Stire kicked field goals of 40 and 50 yards, the second cutting the deficit to 35-20 with just over a minute left. The Zips’ last threat ended there, as Kent State linebacker Trey Rubinstein recovered the ensuing onside kick and the Flashes ran out the clock in victory formation.
The win improves Kent State to 3-5 overall and 2-2 in MAC play, while Akron falls to 1-7 overall and 0-4 in the conference. Kent State head coach Mark Carney is now 2-0 against the Zips, after last season’s 42-35 overtime classic at Akron.
The Wagon Wheel, contested by the two Northeast Ohio rivals since 1946, stays in Kent for another year, and the Flashes will try to carry the rivalry momentum into the heart of the MAC schedule.
Akron will look back on the third quarter as the stretch that decided the game. Gant’s second touchdown had the Zips in front 14-7, and even after DeShields and Harris tied it on the 55-yard strike, Stire’s 40-yard field goal put Akron back ahead 17-14. From that moment, though, Kent State scored three straight touchdowns — Hopperton’s go-ahead catch late in the third, Harris’s third touchdown of the day, and DeShields’ own short scoring run — while the Zips managed only Stire’s long field goal in reply.
Photo: JonRidinger, CC BY-SA 4.0