Pride's season ends with 39-7 loss to No. 2 Grand View
DES MOINES, Iowa - Shorthanded but hopeful to make a season-ending upset of one of the best teams in the NAIA, the Clarke University football team couldn't pull such an upset off as they fell 39-7 to No. 2 Grand View University on Saturday.
After an opening drive touchdown from the Vikings offense, they would be driving again on their second possession but Aaron Fernandez would come up with his second interception in as many weeks to keep Grand View off the board as the ball was turned over near the end zone.
That would keep the Vikings off the board for just a play as the ensuing offsenvie snap from CU would be fumbled into the end zone and dove onto by the Pride for a safety to make it 9-0.
GVU's next possession following the free kick would get into Clarke territory as well as they would attempt a shot into the end zone from the CU 33 yard line where Kenneth Spaight would win a jump ball for the Pride's second interception in as many defensive possessions.
Unfortunately for CU, it wouldn't take long for the Vikings to get points defensively again as they would intercept Clarke quarterback Malik Inabinette and return it for a touchdown on their third down play following previous Grand View turnover.
Inabinette got his first career start behind center for the Pride following the injuries to both Brandon Mueller and Kenyon Williams the previous week at William Penn as Inabinette finished the game going 10-for-20 in the air for 107 yards, a touchdown pass, and three interceptions.
That touchdown pass came in the second quarter as the Pride's only score as he completed a pair of long passes first to Gabe Deadwiler for 33 yards then to Caden Miller the very next play for a touchdown from 20 yards out to make it 16-7 at the time.
The Vikings would scored another touchdown on their next offensive possession to extend the lead to 23-7 then would go on to score their only other touchdowns for the remainder of the game off of CU turnovers into short fields as the Clarke defense did a decent job of limiting long touchdown drives to just the 53-yard opening scoring drive of the game and that 71-yard drive to make it 23-7.
In all, Clarke's defense held Grand View to just 342 yards of total offense and turned the Vikings over three times with 23 of their 39 points coming either from the defense or on short fields starting inside of the Clarke 30 yard line as GVU came into the season finale averaging over 42 points per game and over 440 total yards per game.
A makeshift backfield rushing duo of Sean Ceasar and Dejon Harris had some success lining up in the backfield together as they both rushed 11 times and combined for 66 yards on the ground while Harris also threw for 30 yards on 3-of-3 passing.
Clarke football will now set their sights towards the offseason getting prepared for the 2023 campaign with a good amount of key contributors returning and getting healthy from their 3-8 campaign in 2022.