Persenico leads Pride's five Heart All-Conference selections

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Following their first season with a winning record since 2012, the Clarke University men's soccer team had five members selected to the Heart of America Athletic Conference All Conference teams, conference officials announce on Wednesday afternoon.

Those five members include the first ever First Team selection since joining the Heart as Luke Persenico followed up his All-Heart Third Team season as a freshman in 2021 with a selection the First Team in 2022 as Carles Aparisi earned a Second Team selection with the trio of Jonathan Velasquez, Jose Gomez, and Fernando Contreras all receiving spots on the Third Team.

Five members in a season is more selections than the Pride had in total over the rest of their history in the Heart as they have only had four selections previously with the 9-3-3 regular season record being only one win shy of the program record for wins in a season.

Persenico, a sophomore from St. Charles, Ill., led the team in scoring with 10 goals and two assists totaling 22 points as he scored 10 goals for the second time in as many seasons with two game winning goals credited to him on the season. He started his season scoring a goal in the first four games of the year including a two-goal game at Iowa Wesleyan as his only other mutli-goal performance came in CU's 4-1 upset win over then No. 8 MidAmerica Nazarene on Oct. 8.

Aparisi, a sophomoree from Valencia, Spain, was the anchor of the defensive back line for Clarke at center back as he helped the Pride hold opponents to 1.87 goals per game and a .116 shooting percentage against.

Velasquez, a junior from Lincoln, Neb., is the team's second-leading goal scorer with seven goals on the season playing at striker for the Pride as he also scored two game winning goals for Clarke with the second most shots and shots on goal for CU as he ended the regular season with two goals in the regular season finale against Park.

Gomez, a freshman from Roatan, Honduras, was the key facilitator in the center of the Clarke formation as he led the team in assists with five while being a key part of the defensive formation in his midfield position.

Contreras, a sophomore from El Salvador, was the Pride's starting goalkeeper as he started in 13 of the team's 15 regular season games and appeared in 14 to a 8-2-3 record, a 1.65 goals against average, and a .744 save percentage with 64 total saves in 1201 minutes.

Clarke men's soccer will continue their preparations for the quarterfinals of the Heart Tournament this Saturday as the No. 5 seed Pride will travel to Des Moines, Iowa to face the No. 4 seed Grand View at 7:00 p.m. CT on Nov. 5.