OXFORD, Ohio – A school-record 12 sacks headlined things for the Miami football team's defense in a 20-17 win over Akron on Wednesday night.

The RedHawks' (7-4, 6-1 Mid-American) finished their home season a perfect 5-0 for their first undefeated home slate since the 2004 campaign. Ivan Pace Jr. paced the defensive performance with a school-record six sacks.

After forcing an Akron punt, Miami's first drive saw it use the ground game to move down the field to the 33. A UA sack spoiled the drive, however, as MU was forced to punt and pinned Akron deep in its own territory at the six.

An Andrew Sharp sack pushed the Zips back to their one and stymied their drive before it could get started, setting the Red & White up with a short field at the UA 32. The RedHawks were unable to pick up a first down, but Samuel Sloman got them on the board by drilling a 44-yard field goal with 2:31 left in the opening quarter.

The Zips countered on their next drive by picking up a few first downs in the air, with a 40-yard pass from Kato Nelson to Nate Stewart getting them to the RedHawks' eight. Miami buckled down there, getting a Sterling Weatherford sack and forcing an incomplete pass and another loss of yardage to make Akron settle for a 33-yard field goal from Cory Smigel that tied the game on the first play of the second quarter.

After Brett Gabbert's first completion hit Cam Blakely at the sticks on 3rd-and-10, Miami's ground game got things going. Jaylon Bester busted out a 36-yard rush to get into Akron territory. Two plays later, Tyre Shelton got into the action and burst through the hole for a 21-yard touchdown rush to put MU back on top 10-3 with 11:32 left in the half.

Miami's defense forced a quick three-and-out and Bester rattled off a 26-yard rush on the second play to move it to the Akron 30. A 16-yard connection between Gabbert and Jack Sorenson put it in the red zone and Shelton followed with a 10-yard rush to get the ball to the four. Three plays later, Bester capped the drive with a one-yard rush to make it a 17-3 ballgame with 6:45 to go until halftime.

The RedHawks got to plug territory on their next possession, but a 41-yard field goal try was off target and left it a 17-3. After forcing another punt, Miami reached midfield, but its last drive of the half ended in an interception as MU remained up two touchdowns at the half.

Both teams traded punts for most of the third quarter, but Miami appeared to get things going on its third possession of the half. MU got to the UA 36 on the strength of a 19-yard Gabbert to Sorenson completion, but on third down, John Lako intercepted a pass and returned it 64 yards for a touchdown to pull the Zips within 17-10 with 4:29 left in the third quarter.

Miami countered by getting it back to a two-score game thanks to a couple big gains by Davion Johnson. He picked up 17 on the ground before taking a short pass 25 yards to the Akron nine. While the RedHawks weren't able to punch it into the end zone, Sloman did connect on a 23-yard field goal to bump the lead back to 20-10 with 14 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Zips moved down the field on their next possession and found the end zone on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Kato Nelson to Timothy Scippio to make it 20-17 with 13:17 to go.

Miami went three-and-out on the next possession, but a sack by Doug Costin stymied Akron's drive and forced a punt. The Red & White once again stalled on a three-and-out and the Zips took over at their own 36 with 6:25 to go.

Akron converted a 3rd-and-13 pass to get into Miami territory and eventually reached the 34-yard line. With the Zips in field goal range, pressure on Nelson led to a holding penalty that bumped it back to the 44. From there, Pace wrapped up his record night with back-to-back sacks to make it 4th-and-31 and force a punt. Those plays put him at six sacks for the evening.

Needing a first down to wrap the win up, the RedHawks faced 3rd-and-5 with the Zips out of timeouts. Bester finished his career day with a nine-yard rush to let MU kneel out the clock the rest of the way.

The RedHawks' school-record 12 sacks allowed them to hold the Zips to just 202 yards of offense while they had 355 of their own. Bester led all rushers with 128 yards on 21 carries while adding a touchdown. Shelton also had 87 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.

Miami wraps up its regular season schedule on Nov. 29 at Ball State as it plays its final tuneup before heading to the MAC Championship game on Dec. 7.