Pride produce big plays in season-opening loss to Midland
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Opening their 2023 season with the first ever non-Heart opponent in program history, the Clarke University football team fell 22-14 at Dalzell Field on Saturday afternoon.
The Warriors got the scoring started, cashing in on a 10-play, 70-yard drive in the first quarter with a Levi Markey 16-yard rush as the defense tightened up for the remainder of the half as that would be the only score for Midland in the opening 30 minutes. Markey led all players in rushing yards with 83 yards on 13 carries for a 6.4 yards per carry average and his one touchdown run.
Still a 7-0 game with just under 10 minutes to go in the half, the Pride opened a drive with their first of a handful of big plays of the day with a 39-yard strike from quarterback Brandon Mueller to Jaquan Graham to put CU on the Midland 29 yard line. Another first down would lead to a third down holding penalty, forcing a third and 18 then eventually a fourth and 19 out of field goal range so Clarke would go for it, as Mueller couldn't find an open receiver then decided to scramble for a 19-yard gain and a first down and goal to go situation from the four yard line.
Again, it would get to another fourth down decidion for CU, as they opted to go for six points over three and it would pay off leading to a Thomas Mimes two-yard touchdown run and a Ben Jaeger successful PAT to tie the game at 7-7.
Mimes led the Pride in rushing in his Clarke debut, finishing with 41 yards on nine carries and the touchdown run as CU ran for 135 yards on 42 carries for a 3.2 yards per carry average.
The game would remain 7-7 heading into the halftime break, due in large part to a stellar diving interception from sophomore corner Jordan Summage on a deep shot from the Warriors towards the end zone that could have easily been 39-yard touchdown pass if Summage hadn't snatched the ball out of the air and hands of the MU intended receiver.
Coming out of the locker room, the Pride would have to lean on a new signal caller as Mueller suffered an injury late in the first half that would push Malik Inabinette in to the lineup as his first series of the second half led to a three-and-out that would lead to a punt into a stiff wind that got knocked down by the gusts and bounced back to the Clarke 25 yard line, giving the Warriors a short field.
Midland wouldn't waste that opportunity to start in plus territory as it took one play for MU quarterback Garrison Beach to hit Tariq Brown for a 25-yard touchdown pass, allowing Midland to regain the lead but with a missed PAT kick at 13-7 insteado of 14-7.
Clarke would answer with an aggressive call, letting their back-up quarterback take a deep shot towards Jackson Ostrander as they could connect and Ostrander would outrun the Midland defender to cash in a 75-yard touchdown with Jaeger knocking in another PAT to give CU a lead at 14-13.
Ostrander caught just five passes but the touchdown reception helped the junior get over the 100-yard mark with a game-high 121 receiving yards, averaging 24.2 yards per catch.
The determining moments of the game came on back-to-back plays as the Warriors would fumble a hand off exchange where the Pride would recover and take over on the plus side of the 50 at the Midland 43. But one play later Clarke would fumble on a rush to the right side where Midland would recover and return it all the way back for a touchdown but a failed two-point conversion to make it 19-14 at the early stages of the fourth quarter.
A drive stalled out by penalties for the Pride would give the ball back to Midland with 8:44 left on the clock as they produced a scoring drive that lasted 5:11 but the game would remain a one-score game after a Jared Quinonez field goal made it 22-14.
Inabinette would drive Clarke down the field with a 12-yard rush, and 16-yard completion to Graham, and a helpful pass interference penalty would eventually give CU first and goal from the 10 yard line where they would take three passing shots into the end zone, the final of which would be intercepted by the Warriors as time expired to seal the win for Midland.
Inabinette finished with a game-high 123 passing yards while adding 30 rush yards on five carries all in the second half for Clarke.
Clarke will start the Heart South portion of their schedule next week with a road tilt against reigning Heart South winner in 2022, Benedictine College for a 1:00 p.m. CT kickoff in Atchison, Kan. on Sept. 2.