Pride drop 2025 Senior Day game to No. 1 Grand View
DUBUQUE, Iowa - For the final time of the 2025 season, the Clarke University football team took to the gridiron of Dalzell Field as they would fall to NAIA No. 1 Grand View University by a final score of 58-0.
Prior to kickoff, the Pride football program recognized 21 seniors who all suited up in the navy and gold for the final time in their career that included Marquise Defrand, Zach Rinehart, David Espino, Jordan Summage, Davion Gilbert, Jaden Warren, Brok Determan, Joey Pagan, Marcus Plair, Wolfgang Horner, Max Martin, Cal Bennett, Alonso Quintero, Vince Richardson, Camden Schoor, Spencer Cavaco, Jackson Ostrander-Krier, Malik Inabinette, Jackson Durbin, Mysun Rush-Esdaile, and Steele Fredricks.
Head coach Adam Hicks' defense came to play early on against their toughest foe of the season, keeping the Vikings off the board over the first 10 minutes of the game, and holding the Heart's second-highest scoring offense to just 21 points by halftime where mistakes on both sides of the midway break would loom costly for the home team.
With just over a minute left, CU would throw an interception right around midfield that would be returned to the Pride 33 yard line and turned into a Grand View touchdown three plays later on a Jackson Waring pass to Corey Phillips to put the Vikings up by that 21-0 halftime score.
Waring, was held in check by the Clarke defense as the the 2024 NAIA Player of the Year only completed 10 of his 24 pass attempts for 147 yards but threw a pair of touchdowns while rushing four times for just three yards as the GVU running game, defense and special teams produced 44 of the team's 58 points.
Coming out of the locker rooms into the second half, an ill-timed fair catch signal would put the Pride on their own one yard line on the opening kickoff of the third quarter where GVU's front seven would get into the backfield on a Caleb Perry run to get out of the shadow of their end zone that went unsuccessful for safety to make it 23-0 just seven seconds into the third.
With the ensuing kickoff being taken by Clarke from their own 20, Jordan Kumm caught the Fredricks kickoff at their own 36 yard line and took it all 66 yards to the end zone for a quick nine points for Grand View in just 16 seconds of game action in the second half and only one non-kickoff play ran.
A three-and-out on CU's next offensive drive led to a punt and the Vikings taking over in plus territory as it would take only two plays for Waring to complete his second and final passing touchdown of the day when he his Aisea Toki on a six-yard score to give the visitors 16 points with only 2:02 ran off the clock in the third quarter to put the game at 37-0.
Perry was able to produce an 87-yard performance on the ground to get his season rushing yards total to 1,019 as the first Pride running back to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season in program history, breaking Craig Elmore's season rush yards record set in 2023 in his previous game but finishing with 123 more yards in one less game played.
Defensively, Fredricks finished the game tied for the game-high in tackles with a career-high tying 10 while Rush-Esdaile had nine with a pass break up, and Warren had eight tackles with 1.5 sacks on the day.
Clarke football finished with 2025 season with a 2-9 record, going 1-5 in the Heart North as they'll head into the offseason returning a large percentage of their key contributors on offense for the 2026 season.