Clarke Crusaders Prove Toughest Test Yet

Dubuque, IA - The Eagles opened a five game home stretch against local NAIA school Clarke University on Tuesday afternoon. The Eagles, coming off a long road trip and two matches over the weekend, were excited to play despite entering the match with only three substitutions available due to injury.

The Crusaders, boasting a deep roster and plethora of experience, wasted no time in getting on the board in the third minute. The Eagles started the game rather sluggishly, but appeared to wake up after the goal that freshman Samuel Gitonga (#6) nearly equalized two minutes later, but saw his low driven ball deflect off the far post. Logan Matenaer corralled the rebound and just missed into the side netting.

Clarke then settled in and scored their second and third goals in quick succession to take a 3-0 lead. Their second flurry of goals came 15 minutes later when they knocked in 3 more in quick succession, giving them a 6-0 halftime lead.

The second half saw Clarke resting starters and giving opportunity for their substitutes to see some action. Emmaus, for the most part, played better defense, but failed to generate many opportunities of their own. Clarke then added a seventh goal in the 65^th minute and 3 more in the final 4 minutes of the match to complete a 10-0 victory.

"It obviously wasn't the result we were looking for and was not our strongest effort defensively. We had a lot of guys playing new positions and were really missing some of our key players in the midfield. Still, despite the score line, the guys played hard for 90 minutes and I appreciated Clarke's willingness to play their reserves for significant portions of the game, rather than try to run up the score. They are a growing program and we have a long way to go to be able to compete realistically at that level. At the end of the day, I am proud of our guys and excited to see how we match up this weekend as we open conference play on Saturday against CCCB" ( Coach Brown).

The Eagles have a double-header this weekend, taking on the Baptist Bible College Patriots (Springfield, MO) in a rematch of last Friday's match. The Eagles earned a 2-1 victory in that match, but expect the Patriots to come out fired up. Saturday's match is the first conference match of the season against Central Christian College of the Bible (Moberly, MO).