Pride reach new standard with 13-11 win over Monmouth
DUBUQUE, Iowa - On a brisk Wednesday night at Burrows Field, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team earned a 13-11 win over Monmouth College as the fourth quarter played a big factor in the final result.
Heading into the final period at an 8-8 tie after three back-and-fourth quarters, the back-and-fourth nature continued as the Fighting Scots would continue to take one-goal leads before CU would tie the score with the next goal as they were locked at 10-10 with just under eight minutes to go.
A crucial penalty sent a member of Monmouth's defense off as the Pride would have a locked three minutes with a man-up where they would get two unanswered goals one from Marcus Sierra and one from Matt Archer to make it 12-10 as Conner Cole would provide some extra insurance with the final Pride goal with 4:12 remaining to make it 13-10.
Cole continued his hot run on the attack as the reigning Heart Offensive Player of the Week scored a game-high six goals and added three assists for his second-straight six-goal game to move his season goal total to 20.
Nick Lindsay added two goals and an assist on Archer's game-winning goal with Sierra, Archer, Alec Kolander, Josh Muñoz, and Drew Dorenbush each adding a goal apiece with Muñoz providing two assists as well.
For Monmouth, Michael Casey tied Cole's game-high with six goals of his own with only one assist at Carlos Hernandez finished with five points on the night adding two goals and three assists for the Fighting Scots.
In net, CU's Jack Fritz had his second-straight 14-save performance as the freshman is also coming off of Heart weekly honors as the Heart Defensive Player of the Week as he, along with the Pride, set a new single-season record for wins reaching their third win of the season for the first time in school history with five games still left to play in the regular season.
Up next for Clarke men's lacrosse will be a road trip down to Davenport, Iowa to take on St. Ambrose University this Saturday for a 6:00 p.m. CT start time against the Fighting Bees.