Pride bounce back to winning ways with 12-5 home victory over Midland

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Getting back to their home field for the first time since their 2025 season opener, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team earned their second win of the season in a 12-5 result against Midland University at Burrows Field on Saturday afternoon.

A low scoring start to the game that didn't see the first goal until just under two minutes remaining, each side would outscore their opponent 2-1 in a quarter, first by the Pride getting a pair of last minute goals in the first quarter from Justyse White and Xavier Howard after MU's Carson Meier got the scoring started for CU to lead 2-1 after 15 minutes.

Meier would add another goal in the second quarter along with Cameron Teem for the Warriors to give Midland a 3-2 lead before Henry La Belle would tie the game at 3-3 with just over seven minutes left in the half where the second quarter somewhat mirrored the first with no other goals being scored for the remaining seven-plus minutes of the period.

Clarke would essentially dominate coming out of the locker room at halftime outscoring MU 4-0 in the third with goals from Aiden Gudenkauf, Alex Beard, Saige Moran, and White's second goal of the game as the Warriors were only outshot 9-7 in the quarter but only two of those shots going on net with CU goalie Jack Fritz making the save on both occasions.

Midland would get the first goal of the fourth quarter to cut the Pride lead to three but that would be the closest they would get as Beard would score twice, White and Gudenkauf would both add another, and Reece Rubino would score the final goal of the game to give Clarke another five goals to close out the win.

Beard's hat trick would set a new career-high for goals in a game for the senior from Bella Vista, Ark. as White also produced his second hat trick of the season for the senior from Spokane, Wash. to have at least a goal in all but one game this season with his two hat trick coming in the two CU wins while he added an assist for a season-high four-point game.

The defensive unit in front of Fritz, who made six saves on 11 shots against on goal, that included Doug Powless, Logan Dedrick, Dominick Knazur, and Brandon Drumm combined for 17 caused turnovers and 17 ground balls with Powless producing eight caused turnovers and 10 ground balls himself.

Pride men's lacrosse will get back on the road for another Heart of America Athletic Conference game against Missouri Valley College on Thursday, Mar. 27 with a 7:00 p.m. CT scheduled opening faceoff in Marshall, Mo.