Pride drop 2025 finale to Missouri Baptist
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Entering the week knowing their postseason fate for 2025, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team dropped their final regular season game of the 2025 campaign by a 14-5 final score to Missouri Baptist University at Burrows Field on Wednesday afternoon.
The Pride started out with their hair on fire, scoring the first two goals on a pair of unassisted tallies 21 seconds of game time apart when Justyse White and Isaac Margala made it 2-0 CU just 2:01 into the game as White notched his 22nd goal of the season and Margala got goal number eight in his freshman campaign.
MBU would answer with five-straight goals to get a three-goal lead at 5-2 early into the second quarter that included taking the 2-0 CU lead and going ahead 3-2 in just about 1:40 of game time from 10:58 left to 9:18 left then would beat the buzzer in the first quarter to make it 4-2, and get their fifth just under three minutes into the third.
Matt Archer and Alex Beard would answer with two more for the Pride about a minute apart in the second to make it a 5-4 game, where it would stand at halftime for Archer's 12th goal of the season and Beard's 10th.
A scoreless third quarter from Clarke would allow the Spartans to really pull away as they outscored CU 6-0 to lead 11-4 heading to the final 15 minutes of play where they would get the first three goals of the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 10 goals before Jahvon Anderson got his first goal of the season to put the score at its final of 14-5.
Having been eliminated from postseason play over the weekend, Clarke men's lacrosse finished with a 5-9 overall record and a 3-6 record in the Heart of America Athletic Conference to place seventh in the Heart regular season standings.
The Pride expect to return their four of their double digit goal scorers from the 2025 team including the top two scorers of Henry La Belle and Xavier Howard and starting goalie Jack Fritz but will see the exit of White, Beard, and Archer along with backup goalie Jake Weller, starting faceoff guy Abraham Agundez, starting LSM Dominick Knazur, then defenders Doug Powless and Brandon Drumm, the final three the top three members of the CU team in caused turnovers.