Holy Angels wins Class 2A girls' soccer title, stopping Mahtomedi's streak

Briarleigh Dahl knew her teammates were wrong. She soon made them right.

Dahl's penalty kick won a shootout Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium, giving Holy Angels a 2-1 victory that made the Stars the Class 2A girls' soccer champion. It also ended Mahtomedi's run of consecutive state championships at four.

Dahl, a sophomore defender, scored in the seventh round of kicks, giving the second-seeded Stars a 6-5 shootout win. Her goal came after the top-seeded Zephyrs' seventh shooter, Faith Peper, hit the crossbar with her shot.

Dahl's teammates celebrated what they thought was a victory after Peper's shot bound back onto the field. Dahl knew better and stood ready to score the winner.

"The ref told me that no matter what I still would be taking the free kick," Dahl said. "So I knew it. I was still standing in that line when everyone else was celebrating. I tried yelling for them. But they were already celebrating."

The Stars (20-2-0) began the scoring 5 minutes, 56 seconds into the game on a goal by senior goalkeeper Chloe Sandness. Her free kick from midfield bounced off the turf and over the head of goalkeeper Stella Grabow.

"I put a little power on it and thought, 'Just get there.' I turned around and everyone started running at me," Sandness said. "I was like, 'What happened? Oh, I scored.' I almost started crying there. That's a dream for me to score during a state championship game."

Kaitlyn Moltzan tied it 1-1 for the Zephyrs (18-3-0) with 21:57 left in regulation.

The Zephyrs' streak included three Class 1A titles starting in 2017 and last year's Class 2A title.