Pride fall to William Woods in final home game of 2026
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Getting down the to the stretch run of the 2026 regular season, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team dropped their home finale by a final score of 14-5 on Saturday afternoon at Burrows Field to William Woods University.
Coming into the weekend, it appeared a be a strength on strength matchup that ended up seeing Owls strong offense prevailed over the quality CU defense with William Woods scoring exactly seven goals in each half as it took nearly 34 minutes for the Pride to score their second goal of the game, finishing with four of their five goals coming in the second half.
Ball control and quality of possession played key roles in the game as the Pride were able to win all but three of the faceoffs over the entirety of the game, but turned the ball over 13 more times than WWU and were only able to take 27 shots compared to the 69 attempted by the Owls.
Trailing 7-1 at halftime and 9-3 heading into the fourth quarter, Clarke produced their lone back-to-back goals of the game with a Theo Deberghes goal at the 12:50 mark then a quick Tyler Fleming goal while being a man up making the score 10-5, the closest margin since the 6:11 mark in the first quarter with still over 12 minutes remaining, but then William Woods finished the game with the final four goals of the contest to finish the game by the final nine-goal margin.
Deberghes was both the team's leading scorer, tying Xavier Howard with a goal and an assist each with Deberghes also adding seven ground balls and six caused turnovers with Fleming, Jackson Michaels, and Aiden Gudenkauf scoring the other three goals as Fleming, who came into the game the Pride's leading goal scorer and shot taker was limited to taking just four shots, three on goal, over the entirety of the game.
Playing nearly his career-best game toward the end of his four-year career, goalie Jack Fritz produced a 23-save game on Saturday, just one shy of his career-high for saves in a game, to allow the game to say in a single digit deficit despite facing nearly 70 shots against in total.
The game's leading scorer was Ethan NewMyer of William Woods as he scored five goals and added two assists to be on the scoresheet for half of the Owls' 14 goals in the game as he took 12 shots, eight of which went on goal.
Clarke men's lacrosse will now prepare for their final regular season game that will take place on the road at Missouri Baptist University on Wednesday, Apr. 22 at 7:00 p.m. CT with that game set to determine the sixth and final spot in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament.