“They’re not four goals better than us,” said NIU goalkeeper Joe Zimka after his team fell 4-0 to conference rival Akron at home on Saturday. “They’re a really good team, but we’re a good team too.”

Both No. 23 NIU and No. 6 Akron are two of the best teams in the nation.

For the last three seasons, the MAC Championship has been split between the two, with the Huskies (6-2-2 overall, 1-1 MAC) taking the conference in 2006.

But on Saturday, the Zips (7-1-2, 2-0) were four goals better than the Huskies, as forward Steve Zakuani and his team made a statement in the MAC.

Zakuani, the conference leader in each offensive category, notched his first collegiate hat-trick and brought his MAC leading goal count to 10 on the season.

“Zakuani is a fantastic forward and we gave him a little too much space,” Zimka said. “He’s the type of forward where if he gets a little bit of space, you have to close him down.”

Akron started the scoring in the 26th minute after NIU’s Josh Karsten drew a yellow card right outside the box.

The Zips capitalized on the free kick, as Matt Tutich headed the ball in to score on the far post.

Zakuani put the Zips up 2-0 five minutes later on a misplayed ball between NIU defender Kyle Knotek and Zimka.

“I think it was just an awkward situation,” Knotek said. “We’ve done it many times this year and that was the first time that’s happened. It was just one of those lapses, and you can’t have those lapses against a Top 10 team because they will capitalize on them.”

Akron continued their offensive run as Zakuani scored two more times, with his last goal coming off a penalty kick in the 68th minute.

Despite the loss, the Huskies managed to out-shoot the Zips 16-14.

Though NIU still leads the MAC in shots taken, the team only put three shots on goal, and found themselves below their 20 shot per game average.

“We didn’t attack as well as I’d have liked us to,” Knotek said. “But if you take those mistakes out, and we capitalize on our attempts, people won’t put their heads down and we will play a great game.”

With a half a season to go, Zimka and NIU head coach Steve Simmons said the team can’t let this game determine their season.

Zimka said the team must put the Akron game behind them and look forward to next week’s game against Buffalo.

“We will rebound, we will sort it out and we will be fine,” Simmons said. “No matter what happened in this game, it doesn’t make or break our season. What it does is it makes us focus on the next eight games.”