In a game dictated by yellow-card tackles and two strong back lines refusing to concede a goal, Edina beat Maple Grove 1-0 to win the Class 3A boys soccer state championship on Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Hornets senior defender Haden Smith scored the game’s lone goal with 29 minutes remaining after he intercepted a pass from Maple Grove’s Ben Halberg when the Crimson defender attempted to clear the ball outside of keeper Luke Steen’s box.

Edina senior forward and Mr. Soccer finalist Andreas Engle knew in the first 15 minutes of the game it was going to be a messy slide into the net that brought the team its fifth state soccer title. Smith, after all, had performed the same left-foot tap into the bottom corner in practice the day prior.

“What makes our team very dangerous is that we can score pretty goals like we’ve done and we can also get that sloppy one. It happened to be that the sloppy one was today,” Engle said. “We told the guys before the game, ‘We have to find a way to leave this field as winners.’ ”

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The morning game took on a frenzied back-and-forth format. Both teams scanned for an opening up front while the back lines created a brick wall along the goal line.

Edina opened the game with a crossover shot from the left wing in front of Steen that drew a surprised cry from Maple Grove students clad in striped overalls and crimson hockey helmets.

Maple Grove forward Ousman Touray responded immediately by splitting the Edina defensive line and sprinting toward the net. Starting keeper Griffin Zosel’s quick gloves prevented any chances of a tidy shot.

Edina continued to push into Steen’s box, with the team’s best chance hitting off junior defender Sam Rudolph’s foot. The free kick crossed over the net onto Smith’s forehead. The ball went just wide, rolling past the “n” in the Vikings logo.

Edina’s boys soccer program has a lengthy state tournament appearance history, with 13 trips between 1983 and 2025. The current squad of 22 players brought the Hornets back on top after a five-year championship dry spell on Friday.

Maple Grove, the 3A runners-up in 2024, had something to prove against Edina after conceding two goals to the Hornets in early September.

“I’m speechless,” Edina head coach Dave Jenson said. “It’s right up there [with the 2019 state title].”

Blake secures 2A title over St. Paul Como Park

Blake, a regular visitor to the state final, won the Class 2A championship game 3-0 over St. Paul Como Park on Friday afternoon.

The Bears opened the scoring 13 minutes into the team’s fifth state championship game since 2007 when Mr. Soccer finalist and senior forward Landon Bell launched a shot toward junior midfielder Oliver Brown. The ball spun off Brown’s cleat and sliced into the bottom right corner of the net.

The shot followed frenzied attempts by junior defender Jake Iwan and senior forward Max Vezmar. Both shots ricocheted off the post back into the crowded box before Como Park’s defensive line cleared the ball to the opposite end of the field.

“Having so many chances at the start of the game implied to me that it’s going to keep coming,” Brown said postgame with a grin. “If you can get that good of a start from the jump of the game, there’s going to be more to come. And that’s exactly what happened.”

Blake stretched its advantage 10 minutes into the second half on a free kick connection from junior midfielder Moises Huerta to Vezmar, whose goal made it 2-0.

Brown, who exited the game briefly in the first half with a yellow card, scored the Bears’ third goal when Bell fed him a clean pass nearly halfway through the second half.

“For a high school team, [the Bears] have a very well-defined style of play. And despite that, they’re not predictable at all,” Cougars head coach Brendan Doyle said. “They attack with eight, and when they attack, every single player is able to find a bunch of different solutions. … They’re probably, top to bottom, player for player, the most talented team in our class.”

Junior striker Stephan N’da gave the Cougars their best chances of scoring with repeated sprints through the midfield. Whether he found a teammate or went to the net himself, opportunities dried up in the gloves of freshman Blake goalie Samuel Morris.

With 15 minutes remaining, Como Park received an opportunity on an indirect free kick, but senior forward Blessed Htoo’s shot went wide of the human barrier Blake players formed. Htoo had secured the team’s ticket to the final with a sudden-death goal from 40 yards as the stopwatch neared penalty kicks territory in Tuesday’s semifinal against Simley.

Como Park returned to the state final for the first time since 2013, when it won the Class 1A tournament. As the clock ran out, the school’s dejected student section — dressed for the holiday in costumes ranging from hot dogs to angels — began to file out.

“Despite our lack of seed, we felt pretty confident going up against anyone,” Doyle said. “Blake was the exception to our feeling that we could give as good as we could get.”

Holy Angels shuts down St. Cloud Cathedral to win 1A

Under U.S. Bank Stadium’s bright lights on Halloween night, Holy Angels knocked off St. Cloud Cathedral 4-2 for the Class 1A championship.

The Stars have left with either first or second place every year they have appeared in the state tournament, except for 2018. The trend continued Friday.

Senior attacker James Parish came out swinging with a header, fed by a throw-in, to find the net only 90 seconds into the game.

Holy Angels defender and 2025 Mr. Soccer finalist Thomas Hopkins set up the team for a third goal in an identical format. As the senior launched a throw-in toward a pile of players at the goal line, defender Sergio Rivera Ruiz jumped off the turf. His head slammed the ball past Crusaders keeper Joseph Cluever.

“[In] 2019, we won our first state championship with 10 seconds left in double overtime on a long throw. Last year, James [Parish] scored what was the game-winning goal on a long throw. And yesterday, during our training session, we really hit dead ball set pieces,” Stars coach James See said. “But today, during our walkthrough at 3 p.m., we added in two long throws, and sure enough, it paid dividends.”

The Stars secured their second goal with a 1-2 touch. Holy Angels defender Aaron Biniam lobbed the ball to Parish, who surveyed his options before tapping it back to Biniam. The junior shot with a split-second look at the goal and ran to the sidelines to greet a smattering of fans.

Junior midfielder Leonardo Medrano-Ayala increased the score to 4-0 with 30 minutes left in the second half. Another throw-in left Hopkins’ hands before bouncing off 2025 Mr. Soccer and Crusaders forward Jacob Oliver, and landing in front of Medrano-Ayala.

The game turned heated with 15 minutes remaining when Crusaders sophomore Daniel Lee pushed Stars defender Nicholas Lazo down. Holy Angels’ Julio Rivera Dorantes shoved Lee in retaliation.

The Crusaders, who had never reached the finals in the program’s previous 13 trips to state, failed to split the Holy Angels defensive line until the last seven minutes.

Stars sophomore goalie Carter Hunsaker only had a chance to put his gloves to use when the state’s leading goal scorer, Oliver, entered the box. Freshman Liam Kohn lofted a corner kick to center goal, where Oliver headed it in.

With the clock ticking down, Kohn sent a long pass from the right wing to sophomore striker Lee. The ball hit off of his head and into the net.

“I think [the Stars are] the best team in this tournament,” St. Cloud Cathedral coach Alex Hess said. “Not just the 1A tournament. I think they would arguably compete at the 3A level and do very well.”

The Stars, on a 33-win streak, didn’t go into Friday’s game any differently.

“We kept the same mindset that we’re just going to possess the ball and play the way we play, because if we don’t then we’re not being true to ourselves,” Medrano-Ayala said.