Late Pride surge stops short in Senior Day defeat to Saint Mary

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Looking to bounce back from a tough conference loss about 24 hours prior, the Clarke University men's lacrosse team would drop a tight 10-9 game to University of Saint Mary on Sunday afternoon at Burrows Field.

The day opened with Pride men's lacrosse honoring seniors Maurice Harrison and Drew Dorenbush for their career at Clarke on the selected 2024 Senior Day for CU men's lacrosse.

Struggling offensively for a majority of the game to trail as much as 9-4 in the fourth quarter, a fourth quarter scoring run for the Pride starting with a goal from Dorenbush with 8:40 remaining started a comeback that would see Matt Archer tie the game with a goal at the 1:48 mark for his fourth goal of the game and second goal in about two minutes of action in the fourth.

Unfortunatley for CU, it wouldn't be a happy ending as the Spires would score the game winning goal with under 20 seconds remaining on a tally from Jewelyan Peters, who was just released from an offsides penalty committed close to 30 second earlier.

Archer's four goals would tie for the game-high as USM's Dylan Haynes also found the back of the net four times but added an assist to tie his teammate Bryce Virgil for the game-high in points scored with five on the day.

Clarke would hold an advantage in man-up opportunities and shots taken but only 42 percent of the Pride shots would go on net, leading to 12 saves from Saint Mary goalie Landry Murley, and CU would go 0-for-6 on their man-up opportunities.

Pride men's lacrosse will wrap up their 2024 regular season slate with back-to-back home games to close out the four-game homestand starting with a Wednesday evening matchup against University of Northwestern - St. Paul slated for a 4:00 p.m. CT opening faceoff at Burrows Field.