GROSSE POINTE WOODS – Matteo Vitale and his Macomb Lutheran North teammates didn’t have very many scoring chances Tuesday night.

Especially in the second half.

Grosse Pointe North, ranked seventh in the state in Division 2, outshot unranked Lutheran North 10-4 over the final 40 minutes and 18-10 throughout the entire game.

Yet when Vitale ripped off his shirt with 1:55 remaining – the talented senior midfielder had reason – and he was issued a yellow card seconds later. But that was moments after he scored the go-ahead goal in leading unbeaten Lutheran North to a 1-0 upset of one of the top teams in the state in a Division 2 district semifinals clash at Grosse Pointe North.

This came in Game 2 of a district semifinals double-header where the four competing teams had a combined six total losses amongst them.

Lutheran North – which only won three games last season – will carry its 13-0-3 overall record into Thursday’s district finals match against two-time defending state champion Warren De La Salle (16-3-4), also at Grosse Pointe North.

Following a throw in in front of the Lutheran North bench, junior Cruise Nilson corralled the ball and sent it over to Vitale, who turned and fired around his defender and sent the ball inside the right post from 26 yards out for the game’s only goal. The tally came seconds after Grosse Pointe North had to sub out its starting goalie Oliver Rathnaw who was hurt a few minutes earlier and could not continue with a severe limp.

It was Vitale’s team-leading 36th goal of the season.

“I saw they subbed their starting goalie who couldn’t go anymore. So, when I see my guy (Cruise Nilson) get me the ball, everyone kept saying to shoot it. I seen their goalie was out and there was room in the corner so I just shot it and it went in,” said Vitale. “Yeah, this was my biggest goal of the year – by far.”

The game-winning goal came during a half where Grosse Pointe North dominated play for almost all of the final 40 minutes.

“We have a chance at it,” said Lutheran North coach Brian Horvath of his team advancing to the district finals. “It was a strange game because for the last 30 minutes, maybe by choice or whatever, (Grosse Pointe North) kind of took us away from our game. We couldn’t move the ball the way we were used to. And when we went away from it, they were beating us on all of the 50-50 balls. But when we did have that chance late in the game, Matteo was able to come through and score that goal.”

Beyond the 18-10 shots edge, Grosse Pointe North held a narrow 5-4 edge with shots on goal and even held a 3-1 advantage off cornerkicks. The Norsemen even ripped two shots off the crossbar and post during the contest. Still, the Norsemen (18-2-1) couldn’t find a way to push the ball past Lutheran North senior goalie Andrew Lifshay.

“I thought we dominated almost all of the second half,” sighed Grosse Pointe North coach Nino Maniaci. “But I mean, that’s playoff soccer, right. We had our chances as a team and we could have put it away earlier and couldn’t do it. And I know our goalkeeper got hurt a couple of minutes earlier and unfortunately couldn’t go so we had to take them out and they had that one chance right after that and put it into the back of the net. That is playoff soccer where they had a tough break and they had the one late shot and scored. Props to them. They played a great defensive game. I thought we dominated the game, especially the second half. We had a formation change and I thought we won the midfield a lot more than they did. We just couldn’t out one in.

“We still had a great season,” continued Maniaci. “We won our league and went (undefeated there) and we put ourselves in position to win this game. We just couldn’t finish our chances.”

Defensively, Lutheran North limited the touches of Grosse Pointe North senior forward Matthew Eshman, who entered the game with 47 goals and 12 assists on the year. Anchored by senior Aidan Vermigglio, the Mustangs back line kept the high-scoring Eshman – who is second on the Norsemen’s single-season goals list – off the scoreboard for 80 minutes.

That allowed Lutheran North’s Vitale to score on the Mustangs’ second shot on goal during the second half and keep the team’s unbeaten season very much alive.

“I thought our defense was very good,” noted Horvath. “We did a good job of not letting them get a ton of great shots. We were a bit lucky when they hit one off the crossbar. But we did a nice job of letting them score and gain some momentum.”