Senior Feature: Persenico's mirroring ascent alongside Pride men's soccer

There are plenty of adages that get applied to the world of sports, "Early Bird Gets The Worm", "Actions Speak Louder Than Words", "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right", but the most applicable to the Clarke men's soccer team would have to be, "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day".

In the 41 seasons of Clarke men's soccer, there has only been one season of double digit wins and three seasons where the team won more games than they lost, two of those three coming under the leadership of head coach Mike Paye in 2022 and 2023 with 2024 soon to be officially the fourth such season.

From 2016 to 2020 the Pride won no more than three games and failed to win Heart of America Athletic Conference games in all but one of those five seasons, all before Paye officially took over as head coach in 2021, coinciding with the freshman season of forward Luke Persenico, and that partnership was the perfect medicine for what ailed the Pride.

Backtracking a bit, Luke wasn't the first Persenico to step foot on the turf at Burrows Field for Clarke men's soccer as his older brother, Jake, would transfer to CU from down the road at the University of Dubuque in 2020 a season after teammate and now men's soccer assistant coach Alex Lee did the same.

Both Lee and Luke credit Jake's involvement with the program and the atmosphere Paye started to create around Clarke men's soccer first serving as an associate head coach, as key factors for Luke to make his way to 1550 Clarke Drive.

"My brother was a big influence on me just to play the sport and fall in love with playing soccer," Persenico said. "I saw what he loved about Dubuque and obviously I love hanging out with my brother so being able to play with him again was great since I always did when I was younger."

The St. Charles, Ill. natvie would hit the ground running, scoring his first career collegiate goal in his first ever game on Aug. 27, 2021 at Trinity Christian College in a 3-1 win and would establish early that it would somewhat be a mentality of "as he goes, we go" for the Pride.

"Luke was coming into something that was a little more structured than what Jake had initially experienced at UD and that led him to reach his full potential," Lee said. "He bought in more, he loved the game a little bit more, and he came in and was willing to do whatever we asked of him, did it every single time, and I think you can tell when he has a rough game, the team has a rough game and when he has a great game, the team has a great game.

The very next week, Persenico would record a pair of hat tricks in three games, first in his home debut against University of St. Francis on Aug. 31 on the way to a 5-1 CU victory before doing it again on the road against Dordt University to be named Heart and NAIA Offensive Player of the Week.

"I had confidence going in to college soccer with how much I trained on my own and how much I believed in myself," Persenico said. "Making the adjustment wasn't easy because I was younger and smaller but I did have people like Mike and Jake and the rest of the team to support me so I always thank them for that."

A freshman season that would finish at 10 goals and two assists, while producing two game-winning goals for Persenico to be named All-Heart Third Team and the Pride to finish with seven wins, their winningest season since 2015, a springboard toward what was coming sooner rather than later for Clarke men's soccer.

Persenico would follow up his 10-goal freshman season with 11 goals and two assists as a sophomore to earn All-Heart First Team, becoming the first member of the Pride to reach that feat since joining the conference in the 2016 season. 

Some might look at the difference between Persenico's freshman and sophomore seasons and say, "Why would he jump from Third Team to First Team after only score one more goal than the year prior?" 

Well, made-up commenter, as opposed to getting those first seven goals scored in non-conference play over just three games, Persenico would record at least a point in nine of the Pride's 14 games he played in with over half of his goals coming in conference play, all the while, helping boost CU to its first ever appearance in the Heart Tournament, finishing with a 9-4-3 overall record and a 6-3-3 record in the Heart, good for fifth place in the conference.

But, as mentioned in the outset of this piece, Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, and Clarke men's soccer would fall short of their ultimate goals in 2022, dropping their Heart Quarterfinal matchup against Grand View 4-1, with Persenico scoring the lone goal, and not being selected as an At-Large team to qualify for the NAIA Tournament.

Heading into 2023 with lofty expectations both individually for himself and for the team, both would experience a step back, not in a major way as Persenico finished with a six-goal, five-assist season and the Pride finished at a 7-5-4 record to miss out of the Heart Tournament, but still below the standard that had been established through the growth of the last two seasons.

Potentially the best thing that could have happened for Persenico came in the summer of 2024, when Paye began working with Peoria City, a club in the USL League 2 out of Peoria, Ill. where Persenico would help lead that squad to the League Final as he would score nine goals in 11 regular season games then seven goals in the five playoff games he played in.

"The past three summers I had been trying to get Luke to go somewhere and play," Paye said. "When I got the job at Peoria, I said 'let's go' but he was still thinking he wouldn't play. I told him, 'you'll play' and when we got there he realized he can compete at this level. When he scored his first PK for Peoria City, he never looked back."

His 16 goals would propel Persenico to be named one of three forwards for the USL2 Team of the Year with the following posted about Persenico's season by the league on their website.

"One of the stories of the season, Persenico's rise to national notoriety from NAIA's Clarke University was only just missing the storybook ending.

"Even still, his volume of goals across the season was absolutely brilliant, a terror no matter what defense he came up against. He carried that form throughout the season and into playoffs, scoring seven goals in four matches before even reaching the Final. No matter what happens now, many more people know the name Luke Persenico."

Riding the momentum of that Peoria City season, the expectations once again skyrocketed for Persenico and so far through all but two games of the 2024 Clarke men's soccer season, the now senior has delivered in nearly every way.

"I give a lot of credit to Mike and Alex for what they've done behind the scenes and on the field," Persenico said. "They truly have taken care of this program and turned it around from where it was to what it is now."

Currently with the Pride sitting at an 8-4-1 overall record and 5-4 in the Heart, Clarke sits in fourth place in the conference with two games remaining in their regular season for a chance to get the school's just second ever double digit win season for men's soccer and have their highest finish in conference play holding onto hopes of an NAIA Tournament appearance for the first time in program history.

For Persenico, 16 has so far been the magic number as he matched the 16 Peoria City goals in 16 games to currently sit at 16 goals for the Pride in their first 13 games, recording at least a point in all but two games so far this season, scoring multiple goals in five games, and recording a career-high four-goal game on Oct. 5 against Baker, which would lead to his second-career Heart and NAIA Offensive Player of the Week honor before a pair of two-goal games would give him the conference honor for the second-straight week.

"Soccer's a game of big moments," Lee said. "I don't think Luke really believed he was that big of a player until he started performing in some of those big moments. Especially this year he knows that when he gets those opportunities, he's going to put them away nine times out of 10."

In the middle of that run of scoring eight goals in three games, Persenico achieved a feat that wasn't part of the plan initially but definitely cements his legacy as one of the best athletes to come through Clarke University as he became the program's all-time leading goal scorer passing the 40-goal mark set by Dino Ramic between 2008 to 2012.

"I never really pictured this or thought about it until I started creeping closer to it a game or two before it happened," Persenico said. "I don't think it will truly sink in until after I graduate, then I will be able to look back and truly appreciate how this feels and be grateful for it."

"In life, there's always someone that leads the vehicle," Paye said. "The driver of a car, the captain of a ship, the pilot of a plane. Luke is our pilot. We, as coaches, had to make sure that he is doing a great job leading our vehicle and if he is doing a great job, we will go forward."

Sitting at 43 goals and 14 assists in his career, Persenico has an even 100 points, tying Ramic for the most points in a career as Persenico is one goal away from tying the record for goals in a season (17), and a point away from tying the record for points in a season (38) for this senior season to become the greatest offensive season in Clarke men's soccer history to finish off the greatest offensive career in Clarke men's soccer history.

"Luke could have turned out however he wanted to," Paye said. "Everything he is doing and everything he has done speaks for itself. He's been a kid who wants to win, he wants to learn, and I don't even think he's touched his peak yet. He's getting better every day. I think he's always been the best player in the country, in the conference, that I have ever seen play at this level, in my opinion. I never thought that Clarke deserved Luke but fortunately for me and us, he is here."

Inside of 24 hours before the final regular season home game of his four-year career, Persenico will continue to attempt to set the example for what can for Pride men's soccer with still plenty of new heights yet to be reached.

"I would like younger players to realize that you don't have to be the most skilled or naturally talented player when you're younger," Persenico said. "A lot of it can come from hard work so I would encourage others to use that as motivation to become the best players they can be."