The wagon wheel is heading home. 

It had been 1,151 days since the last time the Kent State football team defeated the Akron Zips in the heated Wagon Wheel rivalry match. The Flashes overcame this long drought in a game that almost stretched to midnight Tuesday, stunning the Zips on the road in overtime, winning 42-35. 

The backdrop of the game was a wintry night, with small bits of snow still visible on the field. Temperatures at kickoff were 33 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds anywhere from 10 miles per hour to 14 mph during the duration of the game. 

This win also marks the first road win for KSU since 2022, when the Flashes defeated the Buffalo Bulls in November of 2022. That was 1,082 days ago. 

“What a game, really proud of the locker room,” coach Mark Carney said. “Really deserving of that result, these guys flipped the switch after last week. On a short week with not a lot of rest they put together a great week of prep and it showed tonight.”

With the win, KSU moves to 4-6 (3-3), just two wins away from clinching its first bowl game appearance in four years. Akron now sits at 4-7 (3-4), one week away from its final contest of 2025 against the Bowling Green Falcons on the road.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Dru DeShields finished with the best stat line of his young career, posting 317 passing yards and five touchdowns, completing 17 of 25 pass attempts. This game was especially significant for DeShields, as he grew up roughly 50 minutes away from Akron in Beloit, OH, and his brother T.J. is an offensive analyst for the Zips. 

“Unbelievably proud of him [DeShields],” Carney said. “In his hometown, against his brother, [it’s] special.”

Akron scored on its opening drive off the leg of redshirt freshman kicker Matthew Schramm, who nailed a 29-yard field goal. The Zips forced KSU to punt on both of its opening drives, but redshirt senior defensive back Malcom DeWalt IV was touched by the ball on a reverb, and the Flashes recovered at Akron’s eight-yard line. 

This allowed redshirt junior running back Gavin Garcia to score KSU’s first touchdown of the night, a three-yard rushing touchdown. This was Garcia’s second touchdown of the season. 

Both teams traded punts before Akron moved the ball down the field on its opening drive of the second quarter, going 90 yards on eight plays.

Junior running back Jordan Gant, already having a solid season, got the Zips its first touchdown of the game on a four-yard rush. 

Two drives later, the Flashes hit on a home run play when DeShields found junior wide receiver Da’Realyst Clark on an 89-yard dime that stunned the Akron faithful inside InfoCision Stadium. Clark now has a receiving, passing and kickoff-return touchdown in 2025. 

To end the first half, Akron took the lead when redshirt senior quarterback Ben Finley found redshirt freshman wide receiver Marcel Williams on a 30-yard pass to take a 17-14 lead. This was the first of two touchdowns for Williams, who finished with a whopping 14 catches and 206 receiving yards. 

The Zips opened the second half with a missed field goal, and KSU capitalized with a 43-yard screen pass touchdown to redshirt freshman wide receiver Cade Wolford. This was Wolford’s eighth touchdown of the 2025 campaign. 

After the Flashes forced Finley into a bad pass, graduate student defensive back Terrell Miller gave KSU the ball back at the Zips’ 12-yard line. Redshirt junior tight end Terik Mulder caught his third touchdown of the season on the ensuing drive, giving KSU a 28-17 lead late in the third quarter. 

“Whoever’s in the game, I can trust,” DeShields said. “They know that, I know that, our O-line blocked for me incredibly great today, they’re the ones who give me the time to throw to those playmakers.”

KSU built up a 35-17 lead in the fourth quarter after sophomore wide receiver Da’Shawn Martin caught a 27-yard pass from DeShields, his fourth touchdown of the day, on a two-play drive. However, Akron began its comeback bid on the very next drive when Finley found Williams for their second scoring connection of the night. 

In a play that shocked the Flashes, Akron head coach Joe Moorhead dialed up an onside kick that was recovered by the Zips on KSU’s 39-yard line, setting his team up perfectly for a huge drive. 

The Zips kicked a field goal after they stalled on third down deep in KSU territory to cut the Flashes’ lead down to eight. On the next drive, DeShields gave up a crucial fumble, and Akron had a chance to tie the game late in the fourth. 

Finley found sophomore wide receiver Israel Polk after the fumble recovery, and the Zips tied the game on a trick play two-point conversion attempt, which saw the senior quarterback receive a pass in the end zone. 

Heading into overtime, the Zips held all the momentum after being down by as much as 18. However, DeShields fired a perfectly placed ball to sophomore wide receiver Ardell Banks on the very first play of overtime for a 25-yard touchdown, which gave the Flashes a seven-point advantage. 

“Clay [Patterson] called a great one, Ardell made a great play,” Carney said. “His [Banks] improvement over the course of this year is incredible; he had every reason to give up on himself and this team and find a new place to play, [but he] kept grinding and

the results tonight speak for themselves.”

Finley and the Zips were unable to overcome the shocking play from KSU and were stopped on fourth down. Despite the miraculous comeback bid from Akron, the Flashes held on and beat its rival 42-35, securing and retaking the prized wagon wheel.  

As soon as the clock struck zero, KSU players and coaches stormed the Akron field in exuberance, celebrating the program’s first win against the most important of rivals in three years. When the Flashes finally got hold of the wagon wheel, they planted it at center field. 

This program is coming off a two-year stretch in which it won just a single game and lost to Akron in consecutive seasons. Instead of giving up and delivering another disappointing campaign in 2025, DeShields and the Flashes dug deep and trusted each other. 

“We’ve always had that chemistry; we just had to really believe in ourselves,” DeShields said. “I think that was the biggest thing, getting that first win and believing that we can win and knowing that we can go take games like we did today.”

Moving ahead 

KSU will play its final home game of 2025 next Wednesday against the Central Michigan Chippewas. The Chippewas are having a back-and-forth season with a record of 5-4, coming off a 24-21 loss in Kalamazoo by rival Western Michigan. 

“That’s what winners do, winners bounce back,” Carney said. “No matter how often or how they get knocked down, they stay in the fight, they get back up and stay ready for more and this group did that.”

Gage Wellman is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].