Fighting Bees pull away late as Pride fall on the road 45-20
DAVENPORT, Iowa - Getting the month of November started with a road matchup against a nearby foe, the Clarke University football team dropped a 45-20 matchup against St. Ambrose University on Saturday afternoon in Davenport, Iowa.
In their first ever matchup on SAU's home turf, the Fighting Bees were able to strike first on their first offensive possesion as they were able to drive 70 yards on 13 plays to cap off the drive with a 15-yard touchdown run from running back Tre Jenkins to make it 7-0 with just over six minutes played.
The Pride would answer in their next possession with their back punching in a touchdown when Caleb Perry broke free for a 34-yard touchdown run to tie the game up after a seven-play 69-yard drive and a Steele Fredricks PAT kick would make the game 7-7.
St. Ambrose would produce the next two scores on a long 51-yard touchdown passs from Alec Ponder to Kameron Bohnsac then added a Harvey Doleman 33-yard field goal late in the second quarter to grow their lead to 10 points at 17-7.
Forcing an SAU punt with just over a minute to go in the opening half, Clarke would get a hand to the punt with Treyson Ikeomu getting credit for the block to put CU in plus territory with 1:04 left and an ability to cut into the lead going into the half.
The Pride would be able to produce a score by way of a Carson Estrada 18-yard touchdown pass to Joseph McCray for McCray's first career touchdown reception in a quick, 25-second 4-play drive that started on the SAU 40 yard line.
Unfortunately for CU, St. Ambrose would answer back with yet another long touchdown strike from Ponder, this time to Braden Downs with a 67-yard score to climb the lead back up to 11 as they hit their PAT after Clarke missed theirs on the previous score.
The Fighting Bees would produce three second half scores and Perry was able to rush in a nine-yard touchdown for his second of the game to get to the eventual final of 45-20 as the score at the end of the first half and another touchdown pass from Ponder to Bohnsac produced a lead of 31-13, which loomed too large to overcome for the Pride.
Perry finished with his second-straight 100-yard rushing effort and third of the season with 112 yards on 21 carries with his fourth-straight appearance of at least one touchdown to move his season total to eight rushing touchdowns on the year.
Estrada completed 19 passes for 262 yards and the touchdown to McCray but only completed 38.8 percent of his passes on the day as six different pass catchers had 12-or-more yards per reception for those 19 completions led by 89 yards on six catches for Riley Hawkins.
Defensively, safety Camden Schoor led all players in the game with 13 tackles, being credited with 10 solo tackles, three assisted tackles and a tackle for a loss of two yards as the 13 tackles sets a new career-high for the senior out of Baytown, Texas.
Another career-high on the tackling side came from junior linebacker Cody Kautz as the Whittier, Calif. product finished with his first career double digit tackle game in his three seasons at Clarke with 10 total tackles, six solo and four assisted tackles.
Clarke football will remain on the road for their next game when they are set to travel to Fulton, Mo. for their first ever matchup against William Woods University for a scheduled 1:00 p.m. CT opening kickoff between the Pride and Owls.