Pride offense slumps in 13-6 loss to Missouri Valley

MARSHALL, Mo. - In their final road game of the 2023 season, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team was unable to get their first victory in Heart of America Athletic Conference play, falling 13-6 to Missouri Valley College on Saturday evening.

A weather delay force the Pride and Vikings to push the start of their game back over an hour from 5:00 p.m. CT to about 6:15 in Marshall, Mo. as the Vikings that may have played a factor toward both teams having a slow start offensively as MVC outscored CU 2-0 in the opening frame.

Missouri Valley would net the first two goals of the second quarter as well to jump out 4-0 bevore Clarke would start to rally with five of the next seven goals to cut the halftime lead down to just a single goal at 6-5 heading into the break.

The Pride offense would stall once again as they went the next 30 minutes of game action only putting one shot behind MVC goalie Jake Lipscomb, who finished the game with only five saves, not seeing much action throughout the entirety of his 60-minute performance.

On the other side of the field, CU goalie Jack Fritz made a career-high 24 saves on the 37 shots on target he faced in a strong effort to keep the Pride in the game, especially in the second half.

The Vikings spread their attack around between nine different goal scorers led by the three-goal night from Cole Eyckelhoff as Dominic Kloeckl and Dre McClain added a pair of goals each.

The game's leading scorer was Clarke's Conner Cole, who had a four-goal night as the senior nears his head coach Tucker La Belle's career goals scored program record that sits at 60 goals where Cole, now at 58, is three goals away from holding that record with one game remaining.

That game will be at Burrows Field on the campus of Clarke University when the 2023 men's lacrosse season wraps up with another Heart matchup against Benedictine College next Friday for a 3:00 p.m. CT start time.