No. 23 Pride strike first but Eagles pull out season-opening 1-1 draw

ELGIN, Ill. - Starting the 2025 season as an NAIA ranked team for the first time in program history, the No. 23 Clarke University men's soccer team came home with a 1-1 draw in their opener at Judson University on Thursday afternoon.

The Pride entered this season with a handful of new faces that resulted in a majority scoreless opening half that saw the Eagles put more shots on frame but starting goalkeeper Lucas Fontana was up for the task as the Chicago State transfer made all three saves that were required of him in the opening 45 minutes.

It was a connection between a pair of returning CU players that struck first, just before the halftime horn sounded when Javi Munoz took the Pride's lone corner kick of the game with just five seconds before the end of the half where Nearco Zamorano got to the other end of the cross to head the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0 heading into the halftime break.

Not long into the second half, Judson would find the equalizer in the 49th minute when Danail Mihaylov got his head to a Inigo Capellan cross to beat Fontana to the CU keeper's left on the diving save attempt to make it a 1-1 game, where it would inevitably finish but the two teams would combine for 10 shots over the reamining 30 minutes of action, four from Judson and six from Clarke.

Fontana would finish the game with six saves over his 90-minute CU debut and eight Pride field players played 70-or-more minutes of game action led by 90 minutes from Xzavier Campa, then Munoz, Yuto Nishio, and William Arana played 84 minutes, as Arana led the team with four shots, and two on goal, Luis Mejia put in 80 minutes, Alfonso Gonzalez played 77 minutes, Zamorano played 72 minutes, and Hector Medrano played 70 minutes.

Clarke men's soccer will head right back to Elgin, Ill. to face off against Oakland City University at Judson for another 1:00 p.m. CT kickoff in a game that will be the Mighty Oaks' 2025 opener.