MURFREESBORO – The unbeaten Madison Magnet soccer team leaned heavily again on Donovan Pruitt to cap a perfect season Friday by knocking off Alcoa 3-2 on penalty kicks in the Class A championship at Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.
The Mustangs won on penalty kicks 4-2 to finish the season at 20-0-2. Their last loss came in the 2022 championship to Gatlinburg-Pittman (1-0).
Pruitte, the Jackson Sun player of the year, helped Madison Magnet bounce back after falling behind 1-0 in the first six minutes. He scored off a header at the 18:59 mark and added another goal on a penalty kick seven minutes later, giving the Mustangs a 2-1 lead. Pruitte also connected on Madison Magnet’s first penalty kick after the two overtime periods.
“It was surreal; I wasn’t really worried about the goals because I was so focused and I just wanted this win so bad,” Pruitte said. “The goals did feel great. I’ve been training hard for this and it all paid off in the end. The first couple of minutes we started off a little slow, but that first goal gave us a lot of momentum and we just dominated the game after that.”
Pruitte, an Alabama-Huntsville signee, scored 46 goals this season and 106 in his three-year career.
Alcoa (15-10-2) was familiar with Pruitte. The lanky 6-foot-1 forward scored each of Madison Magnet’s goals in a 3-2 win over the Tornadoes in the 2022 state quarterfinals.
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“Pruitte is everything everybody says he is,” Alcoa coach Andy Byrd said. “He’s a little one-footed, but at the same time once he pushes that ball into his right he’s so fluid. He reminds me of an NFL receiver where he’s just fluid in his movement on the field. He’s got speed, he’s tough, he’s got a real good right foot to deal with and he’s a workhorse.”
Alcoa’s Leo Santos scored the Tornadoes’ first goal in traffic and then the tying goal with 2:03 remaining.
“We thought we had this game at the beginning and I wasn’t expecting them to come with the high intensity they came back with,” Madison Academy sophomore goalie Roy Macias said. “I was pretty nervous when we went to penalty kicks. I told my teammates I would get one of them for them. I stopped the first two shots and that gave us a lot of confidence.”
Alcoa made the next two penalty kicks while Madison Academy made its first four.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.