24 unanswered points seal Pride's fate in 31-13 loss against Missouri Baptist
DUBUQUE, Iowa – After leading 13-10 going into the fourth quarter, the Clarke University football team surrendered 24 unanswered points to fall on Homecoming Saturday, 31-13 at the hands of the Missouri Baptist Spartans.
The game-sealing play would come on the ground from Spartan senior running back Darius Morrison when he took a handoff 61 yards to the endzone with 4:55 remaining and made the score 24-13. Morrison completed the game with 12 carries for 134 and the long touchdown run, giving him an average of 11.2 yards per rush.
Rushing for over 300 yards total on the day, Missouri Baptist's second-leading rusher on the day, Carl Garmon Jr. took 10 handoffs for 78 yards and his longest carry was for 29 yards.
The rushing attack on Clarke's side was dominated by one person as Craig Elmore carried 23 times for 68 yards and his longest rush on the day was for 16 yards.
Getting on the scoreboard first, Clarke quarterback Brandon Mueller found Jackson Ostrander sprinting to the right corner of the endzone and made an acrobatic tip-toe catch to cap off an eight-play, 52-yard drive to make it 6-0 after a missed extra point. Ostrander would finish with a solid eight catches for 85 yards, averaging 10.6 yards per reception.
The Spartans would answer as they went 74 yards in 1:35 of game action finished off by a Gavin Claud touchdown reception from quarterback Jordan Simpson to make the score 7-6, which would be the halftime score. Starting the day at the quarterback position, Simpson would mostly struggle completing just six passes out of his 19 attempts and throwing two interceptions.
Making those interceptions for the Pride were sophomores Camden Schoor in the secondary and Steele Fredricks from his linebacker position.
With their first possession after halftime, the Pride pulled out a trick play as Mueller threw the ball behind the line of scrimmage to Kenyon Williams followed by a Williams 42-yard pass to an open Dominic Pedroza down to the Spartan 15-yard line.
Four plays later, Mueller connected with Jayden Wyer from four yards out to give CU back the lead at 13-7 with 9:55 to play in the third quarter, tallying Wyer's second touchdown in as many games. Mueller would finish his day going 14-33 with 120 yards and those two touchdown throws.
Missouri Baptist would go on a 24-0 scoring run, including a Cooper Brown touchdown run early in the fourth quarter after he replaced the struggling Simpson halfway through the contest. Brown's stat line was 5-9 for 71 yards and the previously mentioned rushing score.
Pride football will take a week off from game action and host William Penn on October 14th, beginning at 1:00 P.M. CST.