Pride suffer loss in first Heart game against No. 7 William Penn
OSKALOOSA, Iowa - Opening their Heart of America Athletic Conference 2025 season against the 2024 regular season champions, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team was unable to find much success in a 25-6 road loss to No. 7 William Penn University on Monday night.
The Statesmen were able to outscore CU in each quarter and had at least a five-goal advantage in each of the first three quarters including a 6-1 start in the first that included WPU jumping out with six unanswered tallies over the first 8:20 of the game before the Pride got their first goal on the board with a Justyse White goal off of a nice pass from Alex Beard.
It would be more of the same in the second as William Penn scored the first four goals to pull away at 10-1 before Henry La Belle and Aiden Gudenkauf both scored their first of a pair of two-goal performances in a two-minute span in the middle of the period but WPU would answer with three-straight scores to hold a 10-goal lead at the halftime break at 13-3.
Gudenkauf and La Belle would do the same thing in the third with back-to-back goals in the middle portion of the 15-minute period then Jackson Michaels would score the final goal of the game for Clarke with 2:20 left in the fourth as White would add his second point, assisting on the goal.
Just two days after holding their opponent to just 13 shots on goal, that would be the number of shots on goal the Pride would manage against the Statesmen as starter Matt Hollenbaugh made three saves in 30 minutes and Cage Fontana came in off the bench to make four saves with both allowing three goals.
CU goalie Jack Fritz made 28 saves on the 43 shots on target he saw as William Penn fired a total of 68 shots over the entirety of the game winning 67 percent of the faceoffs in the game going 22-for-33 as a team led by Bryce Campbell going 13-for-15.
Two members of the William Penn attack had seven goals each as Kenny Bohney finished with a 12-point game at seven goals and five assists while Everett Breniser also scored seven goals with just one assist while Isaac Margala and Xavier Howard added assists along with Beard to join White, Gudenkauf, La Belle, and Michaels as the point scorers for CU.
Clarke men's lacrosse will return home for the first time since their season opener when they host a new member to the Heart of America in Midland University with a scheduled 12:00 p.m. CT opening faceoff at Burrows Field on Saturday, Mar. 22.