Pride suffer first loss of 2023 in 4-1 result at Baker

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Taking their unbeaten record to their third Heart of America Athletic Conference game, the Clarke University men's soccer team fell by a 4-1 final to Baker University on Saturday night.

The game had plenty of action in the second half in terms of the scoring and in the referee's book as three of the five goals were scored in the second 45 minutes and 10 yellow cards that led to three red cards were handed out during the second half.

With the game tied at 1-1 entering the second half, Gyorgy Kamaras was able to break behind the CU defense and put away his first goal of the game in the 47th minute as the 2-1 score would hold for the next 24 minutes of the game.

Between that goal and the following two, also scored by Kamaras for a hat trick, Baker was whistled for two yellow cards and the Pride were booked with yellows five times including the second yellow cards to a pair of Clarke players, Jonathan Velasquez and Josh Aguirre, to put CU down two men in the match and playing 11-on-9 for the remainder of the game.

Kamaras would get his second and third goals in the 81st and 82nd minutes to essentially put the game away at the time before a third member of the Clarke lineup, Joshua Reddy, received his second yellow card to be sent off with a red, putting the Pride down to eight players for the final 4:23 of the game.

The significantly less eventful first half saw the Wildcats jump out to a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute on a Hunter French goal with Kamaras and Falco Dijkuis assisting for Kamaras to have a seven-point night for BU in their win.

Clarke was able to answer with an equalizer late in the half as Alejandro Valverde was able to put a shot over the goal line off of a corner kick from Jose Gomez in the 38th minute to allow the game to get to a 1-1 tie at the break.

Pride men's soccer will now prepare to be without Velasquez, Aguirre, and Reddy for their Homecoming matchup against Benedictine College next Friday evening, Sept. 29 with a 7:30 p.m. CT scheduled kickoff.