Edina, perfect to the end, defeats Wayzata for Class 3A girls soccer title

For Edina senior Izzy Engle, the goals were "a bit of a blur."

She twice gave her team a one-goal lead in a defensive battle with Wayzata on the way to a 2-1 victory for the Class 3A girls soccer championship Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

"That second goal, that was completely a blur," Engle said. "I think I was just running and shooting. And then we ran to the student section, and then I remember the ref said, 'You've got to get back to the center circle.'

"It was just a lot of emotion."

Top seed Edina finished a perfect season, 22-0. Engle, the Star Tribune's Metro Player of the Year, was a big part of that. She scored seven goals in three state tournament games and raised her season total to 41 goals.

The Hornets had a few corner-kick opportunities in the first half Friday, but the Trojans defense silenced the Hornets' buzz to keep it a 0-0 game. The Hornets talked at halftime about how they simply weren't going to lose this game.

"That's what we demonstrated, our will to win and to play for each other and win for each other," senior Grace Pohlidal said.

Engle found a corner of the net for the 1-0 lead only 2:03 into the second half.

Wayzata senior Ana Munyon tied the game 1-1 with an unassisted goal off a corner kick. But Engle used her speed to get down the field and scored her second goal of the game with 12:54 left in regulation. Edina players agreed that holding on to the one-goal lead in the final 10 minutes was a grind; Edina coach Katie Aafedt said it took "10 years off my life."

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Aafedt called her team resilient, after it trailed in games against Minnetonka in the section final and St. Michael-Albertville in the state quarterfinal. But the Hornets "had a 'never say die,' 'we're going to win this' " attitude throughout the season, Aafedt said.

The Trojans tasked senior defender Mikayla Adams with marking Engle, and she did a good job, coach Tony Peszneker said.

"When you have a player with those abilities, she's going to get her chances at some point, because you can't deny that," Peszneker said. "But overall, we limited her."

Edina won a girls soccer state championship for the first time since 1986, its first of 14 state tournament appearances. They'd finished as state runner-up three times since, including last season in a 1-0 loss to Rosemount.

Wayzata (20-2-0) lost only to Edina this season, 7-2 on Oct. 3 and in Friday's state title game. The Trojans knew they could compete with — and beat — the Hornets, Peszneker said. They had their opportunities, and Peszneker said he was pleased with his team's effort.

"You get to this stage, it doesn't take much to sway a game," Peszneker said. "The mental part of the game is a big part of it. We battled all the way through."

The Trojans finish as a state runner-up for the seventh time in 30 state tournament appearances. Their last state title came in 2012, when they finished a run of three state championships in four years.