Pride suffer first loss of 2024 to No. 8 William Penn

OSKALOOSA, Iowa - Facing their toughest test of the early part of their season, the Clarke University men's soccer team fell by a 3-1 final to NAIA No. 8 William Penn University on Tuesday night in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

The Statesmen were up to the task of the challenging Pride early as they got on the board in the fourth minute of the game as Albert Feixas volleyed a ball headed to him by Miguel Menendez past CU keeper Keegan Brennan to make it 1-0 just under four minutes into the game.

With the game remaining at the slim 1-0 lead, Clarke would have trouble clearing their defensive half as a dangerous challenge from behind in the 18-yard box created a penalty kick opportunity for WPU for Leighton Jameson to tuck his attempt away to the right of Brennan diving the opposite way, extending the lead to 2-0 where it would stay into halftime.

The Pride would strike first in the second half to cut the lead back to a one-goal game as William Penn couldn't successfully clear the ball from their end after a Clarke free kick as Carles Aparisi would settle the ball back on the left side of the box, tap a pass to Xzavier Campa, who crossed it in to find Luke Persenico for the senior to head home CU's first goal of the game and his fifth of the season.

Any momentum from that first goal wouldn't last long as the Statesmen would come back less than four minutes of game time later when Eden Sears tapped in a rebound that came off of the hands of Brennan right to the senior defender to re-extend the lead back to two goals at 3-1.

That's where the game would stay despite a fairly even distribution of shots (13-10 for WPU) and shots on goal (8-7 for WPU) throughout the entirety of the game but the difference may have came in net with Sean Bohan of William Penn making six of seven saves he was tasked to make while Brennan finished with five saves on eight shots on goal against.

Moving to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, Pride men's soccer will play their first home game in conference play on Saturday, Sept. 21 when they host No. 11 Missouri Valley College for a 3:30 p.m. CT scheduled kickoff at Burrows Field.