By Michael J. Wallwork

BEVERLY HILLS – The Macomb Lutheran North Mustangs won the annual Paul Bartoshuk Invitational by defeating host Detroit Country Day Yellowjackets in a six-round shootout Saturday afternoon.

“It was a great win,” Mustangs head coach Anthony Vani said. “These guys haven’t beat Country Day in a while, I think it was 2018 the last time – the last time we won this tournament. The sky is the limit.”

After 60 minutes of scoreless soccer, the teams went to a penalty shootout. It was the second of the day for the Mustangs, who defeated Grosse Pointe South in a shootout in the morning session to reach the title game.

Goalie Will Pruzinksky came up with a leaping save in the sixth round after the Mustangs’ Aidan Vermiglio had already converted that round to seal a 5-4 shootout win and the title.

“I just aligned differently, and I just got a save,” Pruzinsky said. “I’ve gotten quite a lot of (shootout practice) with my team, and they’ve helped me through it.”

The Mustangs did it all weekend with defense, allowing just one goal in 200 minutes of soccer over three games and on Friday and Saturday.

Country Day had the best chance of regulation, blistering a shot early on that Pruzinksky got just enough of to redirect it up and off the crossbar. But while the Yellowjackets had plenty of possession and a slight edge on the stat sheet, they were unable to consistently create chances, and more importantly, create any goals against Lutheran North’s tough defense. Country Day held a 9-5 edge in shot attempts, but only one or two of those created any real problems for Pruzinksky.

“We had a few (chances), but this is something we have to learn and build from. But that’s okay for the first weekend. I’m not disappointed,” Country Day head coach Steve Bossert said.

At the other end, Country Day’s Finn Hounsel l had a little less to do overall, but he also kept a clean sheet during play, making four saves during regulation and having a strong weekend overall as the Yellowjackets also allowed just one goal in three games, aside from the shootout.

Both programs return a large number of players from last year’s teams, while each side also lost a handful of key members from last year as they try to assemble their current squads.

“We have four freshmen on the team, so we’ve got a lot of up and comers. We’re kind of a young team,” Vani said. “But the fight that these kids had – everybody wanted to take a penalty kick. Everyone wanted to be in the game at the end. So I’m super excited about this team this year.”

Country Day returns a few more players but will also have to replace a handful of starters.

“We have about 17 or 18 that have experience with the varsity last season, and we have a decent size senior group. So we lost a lot from that team, but we think that we have enough different pieces that we can have a successful season,” Bossert said.

Article originally posted by The Macomb Daily