Wayzata grabbed a lead only 2 minutes, 12 seconds into Friday morning's Class 3A boys soccer state title game. The early lead let Wayzata turn to its "bread and butter."
Wayzata shuts out Maple Grove, repeats as Class 3A boys soccer champ
Wayzata won its fifth state title and its third in the past six opportunities.
November 3, 2023 at 3:38PM
"We can really lock in on defense when we're up a goal," said Wayzata senior Miles Redmond. "Obviously we want to bang in a few more goals. But that's our bread and butter is defending. So it's easy to focus on that."
Top seed Wayzata turned it into a two-goal lead that held up for a 2-0 victory over No. 2 seed Maple Grove at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Trojans are back-to-back state champions.
Wayzata's goals came in similar fashion from the same personnel. Junior forward Aiden Judickas scored on a header after a corner kick from senior midfielder Charlie Piller to get the scoring started. Then Judickas was right in front again to score off a corner kick from Piller about halfway through the first half.
They practice the corner kicks daily, Piller said.
"We work on hitting the back post," Piller said. "It's usually Jackson Widman, but this time it was Aiden."
This marks Wayzata's fifth state title and third in the past six state tournaments going back to 2017. Wayzata is the first boys soccer back-to-back state champion since Anoka in 2014-15.
Wayzata (20-0-2) finished with back-to-back ties against Minnetonka and Hopkins in mid-September, the only two results keeping it from a perfect season. Sixteen of its 20 victories this season were shutouts; senior goalkeeper Caleb Wagner was in net Friday.
Wayzata coach Dominic Duenas recognized how difficult it can be to repeat as champion but added that this year's senior-dominated team (15 of them in all) was "locked in from Day 1."
The Trojans gave up eight goals in 22 games, with only one goal given up in the run of play, Duenas said.
"That's really, really hard to do at the high school level," Duenas said. "Four of those eight goals were penalty kicks. Not much we can do about that."
Maple Grove (19-1-1) fell just short of winning its first state title and suffered its only loss of the season. The Crimson also finished as the state runner-up 25 years ago in their first of nine state tournament trips.
Friday was the only time this season Maple Grove allowed more than one goal in a game. The Crimson allowed just eight goals all season. With two unbeaten teams, somebody had to lose, said Crimson co-head coach Gregg Leininger.
"Unfortunately, it was us," Leininger said. "We're super proud of them, the effort they gave. Credit to Wayzata, punched us in the face a couple times earlier. We tried to fight back, which I think we did. We just couldn't get one in."
Six players plus head coach Garrett Raboin and assistant coach Ben Gordon are from Minnesota. The tournament’s games will be televised starting Monday.
