Pride pull off Senior Day victory over Central Methodist

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Coming off of their first loss of the month of October, the Clarke University men's soccer team bounced back in a big way to the tune of a 3-1 victory over Central Methodist University on Saturday afternoon at Burrows Field.

Prior to the start of the game, the Pride honored their senior class that included Kevin Klos, Alejandro Valverde, Ryui Akiyama, Eikichi Saito, Joshua Reddy, Josh Aguirre, Kenshin Yasujima, Luke Persenico, Alonso Campos, Artur Nones, Christian Luna, David Palma, Enrique Horna, Erick Rojas, Fernando Contreras, Jan Wadsack, Jorge Pineda, Josh Roman, Leonardo Valladares, Lucas van Loon, Nathan Roman, Ricardo Alonzo, Ricky Diaz, Sam Wright, and Tommy Rea.

The start of the game was not what CU was looking for as the Eagles jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute as Giulian Medaglia scored off of a rebound of a first shot saved by Clarke keeper Philipp Kohle.

Later in the 18th minute, Clarke would earn a throw in deep in their offensive third as Reddy would use his long throw-in ability to place a ball in the middle of the box where Carles Aparisi got his head to the ball for it to fall to Persenico, who scored his Heart leading 17th goal of the season with a sliding strike into the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1.

The Pride would grab the lead before the halftime break with a little bit of help from CMU as Yasujima would take the ball and streak down the left win to cross a bouncing pass into the box as it would be deflected by an Eagles defender just inside of the far post for an own goal to make it 2-1 Clarke.

That score would hold up until the final 90 seconds of the game as Persenico collected a clearance out of the Clarke defensive third to send it towards Yasujima, once again using his speed to run into open space as he would fire a shot this time to find the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season to put the game on ice at 3-1.

Clarke men's soccer has one game remaining in the 2024 regular season as they will travel to Grand View University next Thursday, Oct. 31 for a 7:30 p.m. CT scheduled kickoff in Des Moines, Iowa where the Pride will look to secure a third place finish and a first round home game in the Heart Tournament.