Pride men's soccer drops tight Senior Night Matchup 2-1 to Grand View

DUBUQUE, Iowa - In a crucial game coming down the home stretch of the regular season, the Clarke University men's soccer team fell 2-1 to Grand View University Wednesday night at Burrows Field.

Trailing 1-0 for a majority of the second half after a late first half goal from GU's Will Curtis, the Pride fought back to put heavy pressure on the Vikings defense in the second when senior Patrick Asamoah directed a ball on net as it deflected to just trickle over the line to tie it at 1-1 in the 80th minute.

Grand View continued to mount their own pressure after the tie game as they broke the tie in the 88th minute on a strong strike from Lucas Gutierrez to make it 2-1. The Vikings sustained pressure on Clarke for good portions of the game despite being down a man after losing Diego Leite to a straight red card in just the 13th minute of the game as he was sent off after a physical altercation with a CU player.

Despite playing down a man for over 77 minutes, GU outshot the Pride 16-15 with shots on goal going in favor of the Vikings 9-4 throughout the game. Clarke keeper Jan Paule did everything in his power to keep Clarke in the game, making seven saves, including some at point blank range as the two goals given up were on odd-man opportunities.

As it stands now, Clarke is just on the outside looking in for the Heart of America Conference Tournament as they sit in the ninth spot at at 4-6-1 conference record, just behind Mount Mercy's 5-6 Heart record. 

The Pride will need to win their final regular season game on the road at MidAmerica Nazarene University this Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. CT scheduled kickoff as CU will also need a Mount Mercy loss to Benedictine later that night at 7:30 p.m. CT to clinch a tournament berth.