2024 season comes to a close for Pride men's lacrosse in Heart Tournament loss to Benedictine

ATCHISON, Kan. - Reaching postseason play for the first time in the history of the program, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team fell by an 18-5 final score to Benedictine College on Wednesday night in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals.

Traveling to take on the Heart regular season champions for the second time this season, the Pride kept with the Ravens to never trail by more than a goal for the opening 12:21 of the first quarter, tying the game at 1-1 and 2-2 after falling behind by a goal twice in the early going.

Back-to-back goals to end the first quarter then scoring the first four of the second would take the game from 2-2 to an 8-2 lead on that 6-0 run as a Henry La Belle goal up a man would take the BC lead to five goals entering the halftime break at 8-3.

Ryder Chaba would score the first goal of the second half to pull CU within a four-goal margin but another significant run from the Ravens would essential carry Benedictine to their win despite having a full quarter to go as they would go on a 7-0 run to finish the quarter up 15-4.

Benedictine would outshoot the Pride 62-17 in the game as turnovers and failure to clear their defensive zone would hinder Clarke on the night as CU would commit 38 turnovers to just 23 for the Ravens as the Pride would only complete five of their 24 clear attempts in the game.

Chaba finished the game scoring three of the team's four goals as a pair of Ravens would finish with five goals as Mac Postel Jr. and Joseph Bianchi both scored five with Postel Jr. adding a pair of assists to lead the game with seven points and Mason Eberle added four goals and two assists for a six-point night.

With the shot discrepancy being so severe in favor of Benedictine, Jack Fritz did all he could to attempt to keep the Pride in the game, making 17 saves on the 35 shots on goal he faced as his counterpart, CJ Besuzzi finished with seven saves playing all 60 minutes.

This loss will close the books on the 2024 season for CU men's lacrosse as they finish with a program-best five wins and their first trip to a conference tournament in their nine seasons as a program.