Medrano bookends ranked matchup as No. 20 Pride draw No. 14 Vikings

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Hosting their third-straight NAIA ranked opponent, the No. 20 Clarke University men's soccer team earned a 2-2 draw against No. 14 Missouri Valley College at Burrows Field on Saturday afternoon after some late-game heroics.

The game matched Saturday's weather as it got off to a hot start with their first goal coming less than 90 seconds into the game as they scored in a similar manner as their lone goal a week prior in a 1-0 win at Park with Yuto Nishio pressing the Vikings defense, forcing a turnover, then finding an open Hector Medrano, who would make it 1-0 in the second minute of the game.

MVC would equlize in the 19th minute when Felipe Delcorco made it 1-1 as that would be where the score would remain heading into the halftime break before Davor Marinkovic of the Vikings would give Missouri Valley their first lead of the day in the 69th minute.

That lead would hold all the way until the final minute of the game as the Pride would earn a throw in deep in their offensive third where Evan Lock would hurl the ball as centrally as he could where a bouncing ball would be shot by Medrano and blocked but an overly physical defense from Missouri Valley would cause a foul in the box and a penalty kick for Clarke with just 15  seconds remaining.

Medrano would step to the dot and bury the shot for his fourth goal of the season, sliding it inside of the left post with the goalie diving to his left, Medrano's right for Clarke's own equalizer to clinch the 2-2 final after CU dropped their first game of the 2025 season earlier in the week to No. 5 William Penn.

With the warm temperatures, only two field players in the Pride lineup played 90 minutes in the game as Nearco Zamorano and Daniel Valverde led the team in minutes as well as goalkeeper Lucas Fontana, who produced a four-save performance as he's never made less than four saves in any of his six games.

Clarke men's soccer will get back on the road for the second time in Heart of America Athletic Conference play when they travel to Des Moines, Iowa for a scheduled 5:00 p.m. CT kickoff against Grand View University on Wednesday, Sept. 17.