Pride and Statesmen play to 2-2 draw

DUBUQUE, Iowa - In their first matchup against the ranked opponent of the 2023 season, the Clarke University men's soccer team earned a 2-2 result against No. 15 William Penn University on Wednesday night at Burrows Field.

The Pride were the only team in the matchup to have a lead in the game as they scored the first goal of the game and the first goal of the second half to hold a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute and a 2-1 lead in the 78th minute but WPU was able to answer on both occasions, once fairly quickly in the 24th minute and the final equalizer in the 90th minute with under 40 seconds remaining in the game.

That equalizer was score by way of a penalty kick opportunity as a Statesmen player was brought down in the box for a foul and the penalty was awarded and scored by Edan Sears for his third goal of the season to make it a 2-2 final despite Clarke's best effort to put a final effort towards the William Penn goal.

CU's lead was earned at 2-1 on a strong second effort from Luke Persenico as he found space in the box and was fed perfectly on a cross from Jose Gomez that went off the cross bar but bounced right back to Persenico to finish it into the net on the second effort and give the Pride what looked like a game-winning goal before the PK finish.

Both first half goals were scored off of long throw in attempts from deep in each team's offensive zones as first Joshua Reddy found the head of Erik Bohm for the first goal of the game but then Lukas Koch found Dimitrije Jolovic for WPU's first equalizer of the day.

That Statesmen goal forced Fernando Contreras off of the bench for the Pride to relieve starter Marc Ibanez after Ibanez suffered a minor injury on the goal as Contreras was a stablizing force in net, making four saves and punching a lot of aerial feeds into the box out of harms way to eliminate the WPU attack on various occasions.

Still without a loss on the season, the Pride will hit the road for a Saturday meeting against Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan. for a 7:30 p.m. CT scheduled start against the Wildcats.