Late Spartan surge dooms Pride in 16-4 loss in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - A quick stop to non-conference action in the bulk of their conference schedule, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team fell 16-4 on the road to Missouri Baptist University on Friday afternoon.

The game was largely decided in a 7-0 fourth quarter for the Spartans after heading into that period leading already by five at 9-4 but three-straight CU penalties would lead to back-to-back man-up goals for MBU as they would also add a goal at a man-down to push their lead to eight goals in just under six minutes into the final quarter.

Joe Busselman of Missouri Baptist scored three of his game-high tying five goals in that fourth quarter as Brock Pleis would match Busselman with five of his own and Reece Dotterer finished with four goals, three in the second half for that trio to combine for 14 of the team's 16 goals in the game.

The Pride had three multi-point scorers as Henry La Belle finished with two goals, Doug Powless had two assists, and Justyse White added a goal and an assist as turnovers would hinder Clarke in a way to finish the game at a negative eight margin in the game.

Clarke would hold the advantage at the faceoff dot as Abraham Agundez finished winning 15 of the 23 total faceoffs in the game and CU goalie Jack Fritz would finish with 11 saves on the 27 shots faced compared to his counterpart, Ashton Scott making 14 saves on 18 shots faced.

Pride men's lacrosse will begin a four-game homestand that will finish out their 2024 regular season starting with a return to Heart of America Athletic Conference play when they host William Penn University on Saturday, Apr. 13 for a 3:00 p.m. CT scheduled faceoff against the Statesmen.