Pride fall at home to No. 21 William Penn
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Playing their second-straight home game coming off of the Heart of America Athletic Conference bye week, the Clarke University football team dropped a 45-21 final score to William Penn University at Dalzell Field on Saturday afternoon.
A game that took almost the entirety of the first quarter for the offenses to get going, as the two teams traded two punts apiece over the opening eight-plus minutes before a 98-yard touchdown run from Statesmen running back Destynd Loring got the scoring started with 3:33 remaining in the opening quarter.
WPU would continue to feed Loring, who would run the fall 23 times for 203 yards on the ground and three touchdowns as the William Penn ground game finished the day with 241 net yards of rushing with Zachary Crump running the ball four times for 18 yards and quarterback Sterling Ramsey II adding 19 rushing yards of his own.
Loring scored his second touchdown in the next Statesmen drive, this time a six-yard score early in the second quarter before the passing game would factor in for William Penn as Ramsey converted a fourth and 15 play for a 30-yard touchdown pass to Fabian Early II to make it a three-score game of 21-0 that would hold into the halftime break.
The Pride would have their best rushing yardage game of the season with 161 yards on 40 carries led by a second-straight career-day for junior running back Caleb Perry who produced 31 of those 40 carries for a career-high 149 yards, besting his all-purpose career-high last week as the Bartlesville, Okla. native punched in the first CU touchdown of the game to make it a 21-7 game over halfway through the third quarter.
Three-straight William Penn scores to answer Clarke's first touchdown made it a 38-7 game before a pair of late Pride touchdowns cut it to a 17-point game on Carson Estrada touchdown passes to tight ends Cal Bennett on a 23-yard pass and Zach Rinehart on a 1-yard pass set up by a 73-yard competion to receiver Isaac Guerrero as the score would move to 38-21.
Recovering an onside kick with about a minute and a half remaining in the game, the Statesmen would officially seal the deal with an 88-yard interception return for a touchdown to put the game at its eventual final score of 45-21.
Ramsey won the quarterback battle with his 285 yards in the air as Estrada passed for 246 yards as each completed two touchdown passes but Estrada threw that pick six and another interception in the fourth quarter where Ramsey did not turn the ball over in the game.
Guerrero led all pass catchers in the game with a career-high 90 yards in the game as Perry had another high-reception game out of the backfield, leading the game with six receptions to add 20 yards to his scrimmage total to finish at 169 after a 145 all-purpose game last week.
Defensively, senior linebacker Steele Fredricks set a career-high with a 10-tackle performance while also breaking up a pass as Jaden Warren produced an eight-tackle game with a fumble recovery and two pass break-ups of his own.
Clarke football will be on the road for their next two games, first a Nov. 1 matchup in Davenport, Iowa to take on St. Ambrose University for a 1:00 p.m. CT scheduled kickoff between the Pride and Fighting Bees.