Pride drop Heart opener 7-4 to Mount Vernon Nazarene

CHICAGO, Ill. - Meeting about halfway between the two schools, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team opened their Heart of America Athletic Conference slate with a neutral site matchup against Mount Vernon Nazarene University to a 7-4 loss.

The Pride scored a single goal in each period and held a 1-0 lead after a quarter but a pair of three-goal quarters in both the second and fourth powered the Cougars to pull away for their three-goal win.

CU got a two-goal performance from freshman Aiden Gudenkauf and a goal apiece from Justyse White and Alex Beard, Beard's first-career score in his junior season with under a minute to go in the third to keep it a one-goal game entering the fourth.

Unfortunately for Clarke, that wasn't enough offense as MVNU seemingly controlled the play starting with Zach Wigton winning nine of the 14 faceoffs while Jonathan Hall finished with four points on a game-high three goals while adding an assist as the Cougars outshot the Pride 38-13 overall and 20-10 for shots on goal as Jack Fritz did his best to keep CU in it with 13 saves.

Clarke will get back on home turf for back-to-back games at Burrows Field next week starting with a 5:00 p.m. CT faceoff against Herkimer College on Wednesday, Mar. 13.