Pride fourth quarter rally falls short in 6-5 loss at Marian
FOND du LAC, Wis. - Continuing their early stretch of road non-conference games, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team dropped their third-straight game in a low scoring 6-5 final at Marian University (Wis.) on Saturday afternoon.
The Pride went scoreless in the first quarter as Trevor Stachowski and Bennett Luke scored goals in the latter stages of the opening 15 minutes as the teams would enter the locker room at a 2-1 MU lead after Matt Archer scored at the 12:10 mark of the second quarter on an assist from Aiden Gudenkauf.
Clarke would tie the game in the third quarter on a Henry La Belle unassisted goal with 10:45 remaining in the third but once again there wouldn't be much offense on either side before Serge Simard gave the Sabres the lead back with his own unassisted goal as the game would enter the fourth quarter at a 3-2 Marian advantage.
Simard and CU's Xavier Howard would trade goals about a minute and a half apart early on in the fourth as the Pride never allowed Marian to take more than a two-goal lead following an Isaac Margala goal with 6:29 remaining in the game but Stachowski scored off of an assist from Simard in a man up situation to make it 6-4 with just under three minutes to go.
Howard would get his second goal of the game with just over a minute to go in Clarke's own man up situation and Abraham Agundez would win the ensuing faceoff for the Pride to get Justyse White a shot at goal but the shot went wide, CU would turn the ball over and couldn't get the ball back and even committing another penalty for the Sabres to run out the clock and seal the one-goal victory.
The Pride were able to get more shots off on goal but MU goalie Jackson Sweeney made 20 saves in the 60-minute game where the Clarke defense did a better job of keeping the action away from goalie Jack Fritz as he only faced 13 shots on goal against, making seven saves and Agundez dominated the faceoff opportunities in part to limit those scoring opportunities for Marian as he won 14 of the 15 total draws in the game.
Clarke men's lacrosse will play their first Heart of America Athletic Conference game of the 2025 season in their next contest when they hit the road for Oskaloosa, Iowa for a scheduled 6:00 p.m. CT opening faceoff against William Penn University on Monday, Mar. 17.