Holy Angels boys soccer wins third straight state title

Need evidence? In the past four seasons, Holy Angels has assembled a 74-2-4 record. In that span, the Stars have more championships than they do losses.

The latest for the No. 1 seed came in a 1-0 victory over No. 2 St. Croix Prep in the Class A championship game of the Minnesota State High School League’s Boys Soccer State Tournament late Saturday night, Nov. 7 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Senior midfielder Aaron Biniam scored with 11 minutes remaining in regulation time to give the Stars (20-0-1) their third consecutive state championship, and second in a row in Class A. Holy Angels ended the season on a 10-game winning streak and stretched its unbeaten string to 54 in a row.

In their sights are Stillwater’s state record 62-game unbeaten string that was set in the mid-1990s. The Ponies spree included a 40-game winning streak.

“We will talk about Stillwater next year,” Stars coach James See said.

Holy Angels was so confident about notching their fourth state championship overall that overtime didn’t cross their minds.

“We never thought we would lose,” senior midfielder Leonardo Medrano-Ayala said. “We weren’t even thinking about overtime. We knew we would score.”

Holy Angels did so when junior forward Taylor Scrafford created a brilliant crossing pass through traffic to Biniam on the opposite side of the goalie box. Biniam had evaded a defender and found himself wide open to receive Scrafford’s pass.

When he received the service, it was an easy one-tap into an open goal from five yards.

“My job is to bury it,” Biniam said. “That’s how we get things done. We all do our jobs.”

Said Scrafford: “I always envisioned myself scoring the big goal, but making the pass is just as good.”

St. Croix Prep (20-1-1) gave the Stars fits in the early going but couldn’t find a goal to put additional pressure on Holy Angels.