Pride pick up first Heart win in double overtime thriller at Midland
FREMONT, Neb. - In a matchup of a pair of 0-1 teams in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, the Clarke University and Midland University men's lacrosse teams played about as tight of a game as you can get in their Saturday afternoon matchup in Fremont, Neb. to a double overtime 7-6 win for the Pride.
Despite the visitors taking an early 1-0 lead behind an Xavier Howard goal assisted by Reese Rubino just over three minutes into the game, the Warriors scored four unanswered goals, one in the first to tie it then the first three goals of the second quarter to make it 4-1 before a late Jackson Michaels goal from Howard made the score 4-2 heading into the halftime break.
The roles would be reversed in the third quarter when the Pride scored three unanswered goals, combining with the Michaels goal in the second to make it four-straight tallies for CU, giving them a 5-4 lead as Michaels got the first goal of the third on an assist from Tyler Fleming then both Aiden Gudenkauf and Jahvon Anderson found the back of the net to give Clarke the lead heading into the final 15 minutes of regulation.
The back-and-forth game continued in that final period, with MU tying the game in the first 2:20 of the period and taking the lead back with 5:38 to go in regulation before Michaels came up clutch just under a minute later off another Fleming assist to tie the score at 6-6, where the game would remain after the full 60 minutes of regulation, sending it into overtime.
Finishing the opening four-minute overtime scoreless, it wouldn't take long into the second extra period to find a game-winning goal when Theo Deberghes fired a shot just 18 seconds into double overtime to call game on the 7-6 Pride victory.
That clutch goal capped off what was a strong defensive effort from the junior long stick midfielder as he led the game in caused turnovers with five and ground balls with eight while Howard (one goal, one assist), Fleming (two assists), and Michaels (three goals) all finished with multi-point games in Clarke's second win of the year and first Heart victory.
At the faceoff dot, Josh Pote finished 11-for-16 with Matt Warmowski taking and winning one faceoff in the game while goalies Jack Fritz and Kiereek Mcleod split the game between the first and second half for Mcleod to play the second half and overtime to make nine saves on the 11 shots on goal faced.
Pride men's lacrosse will return home to Burrows Field for a 2:00 p.m. CT scheduled opening faceoff on Wednesday, Mar. 25 when they welcome William Penn University to Dubuque, Iowa.