Pride fall in Heart Quarterfinal 4-1 to Grand View

DES MOINES, Iowa - In their first ever trip to the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament, the Clarke University men's soccer team had a quick exit in the quarterfinal round by way of a 4-1 loss to Grand View University.

It was three second half goals that propelled the Vikings to their second home win over the Pride in 11 days as they earned a 3-1 win over CU in the regular season on Oct. 25.

The initial scoring came early in the opening half as GVU's Daniel Tews scored in the sixth minute but it took less than eight minutes for the Pride to answer as Luke Persenico scored his 11th goal of the season in the 13th minute to tie it at 1-1, which would hold until halftime.

Clarke had an opportunity to take that 2-1 lead in the second half as a CU corner kick found the head of Keita Sato, who put it on frame but Vikings keeper Emiliano Laguna made a strong diving save to keep it at 1-1 just over a minute into the second half.

In the 53rd mintue, Mckray Tuma sent a nice lobbed pass to Jayce Berger who buried the defacto game-winning goal to give Grand View that 2-1 lead as they would extend it to 3-1 in the 64th minute on a Rune Peterson goal, and then to the eventual final of 4-1 when Jaren Obia scored in the 72nd minute.

The Pride will still have hopes of being selected as an at-large team in the NAIA Tournament as the selection show will air online on Nov. 14 with the First Round slated to start on Nov. 17 at various host sites.