Pride pick up first win of 2026 on the road at Marian
FON du LAC, Wis. - Relocating their game against Marian University (WI) following thunderstorms that postponed the original game in Dubuque last Tuesday, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team were able to earn their first win of the season with a 9-4 win over the Sabres on Tuesady evening.
It was a resounding 4-0 second quarter that was inevitably help carry the Pride to victory as each other period was either tied or a one-goal advantage for CU over low scoring quarters that saw goalie Kiereek Mcleod make 10 saves in 14 shots on goal against for his first win in net for the navy and gold.
For the scoring, Tank Payton got things goal with an unassisted goal nearly 40 seconds into the game, but MU was able to answer over 10 minutes later to tie the score at 1-1 going into the second where it was Tyler Fleming with two goals, Xavier Howard scoring his own goal and assisting on one of Fleming's, then a Matt Warmowski goal up a man to push Clarke to a 5-1 lead heading into the halftime break.
The Sabres were able to get two goals back in the third, but the Pride also answered with a pair of their own sandwiched in the middle when Fleming got his third of the game from Howard's second assist and Jackson Michaels joined in on the scoring with a goal off of Payton assist.
Marian made it a three goal game with just over nine minutes to go in the fourth, again CU was able to answer when Howard and Fleming were able to both notch unassisted strikes, Fleming's coming with under two minutes to go to truly ice the win for Clarke.
Fleming and Howard both finished with four-point games, Fleming's being his second-straight four-goal game with Howard producing two goals and two assists while Payton, had his first multi-point game of the season and the long pole group of Logan Dedrick, Kaden Pemberton, Ethan Cornett, and Theo Deberghes combined to grab 20 of the team's 52 ground balls with 10 caused turnovers, seven of which came from Deberghes.
On faceoffs, the tandem of Josh Pote and Warmowski won 12 of the 17 draws as Pote went 10-for-15 and Warmowski a perfect 2-for-2 as that possession time allowed the Pride to outshoot Marian 36-29 over the entirety of the game and an outstanding 19-2 in that 4-0 second quarter.
Clarke men's lacrosse had to cancel their next scheduled game on Tuesday, Mar. 17 so will next play a road conference game at Fremont, Neb. when they take on Midland University on Mar. 21 with a scheduled opening faceoff for 2:00 p.m. CT between the Pride and Warriors.