Pride fall to Columbia in high scoring 17-10 road loss

COLUMBIA, Mo. - On the third day of a two-game road trip, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team comes home with a split falling 17-10 to Columbia College on Saturday after earning a win two days prior.

The game was off and running with a high scoring first quarter that saw Cougars outscore the Pride 7-4 in opening 15 minutes despite CU striking first with a Henry La Belle goal under two minutes into the game.

CC answered back with the next two goals before Matt Archer scored in a man-up situation to tie the score at two but Columbia would produce the next four goals to lead 6-2 and answer a two-goal run from Clarke with a last second goal from Drake Morrissey after Xavier Howard and Aiden Gudenkauf both scored for CU.

The Cougars would pull away in the second quarter, shutting the Pride out in the period to a 4-0 15 minutes as Clarke would come out of the halftime break with La Belle, Gudenkauf, and Howard each collecting their second tallies of the game but it wouldn't be enough to get any closer than a four-goal deficit, which they made it twice.

Columbia would outscore Clarke in the fourth with Howard adding two more goals to finish with a four-goal, two assists game, and Doug Powless getting his first goal of the season but the Cougars had made it 17-9 by that point in the game to pull away to a comfortable victory.

Both goalies made double digit saves as CU's Jack Fritz finished with 11 saves on 28 shots on goal against while Andrew Stapf of CC had a 10-save performance on 20 shots against.

Pride men's lacrosse will return home, hoping to remain undefeated on the Burrows Field turf when they host St. Ambrose University for a 5:00 p.m. CT scheduled opening faceoff between the Heart of America Athletic Conference rivals.