Pride come back from down three goals to earn 4-3 win at Mount Mercy

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - In the middle of a tough three-game road stretch to close out the regular season, the Clarke University men's soccer team earned a 4-3 victory over No. 24 Mount Mercy on Tuesday night.

The Pride fell behind 1-0 early as MMU scored a goal in the second minute as Keita Karasawa finished off a tap-in on an odd-man rush to go in front by the eventual halftime score of 1-0.

In the second half, Mount Mercy controlled the early portions to take a 3-0 lead with about 25 minutes remaining on goals from Ilija Kosoric and Robin Sarret.

Not long after the Sarret goal, Clarke upped the pressure on the attack as CU would earn a corner kick for Luke Persenico to feed an in-swinging cross into the box for Nearco Zamorano to finish off a header and give the Pride life in the 70th minute.

Just over four minutes later, it would be another cross-like play as Joshua Reddy sent in a long throw in towards the box for Daniel Valverde to get on the other end to slide into the net and make it a one-goal game in the 74th minute.

Less than a minute later Alonso Campos scored the goal of the season on a bicycle kick off of a cross from Jose Gomez to tie the game at 3-3 for a three-goal barrage in just over five minutes.

With plenty of game left, Clarke continued to go on the offensive as they would rush on a counter attack with under two minutes remaining as the Mustangs couldn't capitalize on a corner kick then Fernando Contreras would spring a goal kick to Gomez, who would find Campos on an odd-man rush to give Hector Medrano and Lucas Bordini a 2-on-0 against the goal keeper for Medrano to lay the ball off to Bordini to score the game-winning goal.

Clarke moves to 7-4-4 overall and 4-4-2 in the Heart with the upset win over No. 24 Mount Mercy as they'll remain on the road for the regular season finale against Central Methodist University on Friday for a 5:30 p.m. CT start time in Fayette, Mo.