Ezra Straub’s two goals in a span of a few minutes were polar opposites of one another. The one that broke the seal and put St. Paul Academy up 1-0 with 30 minutes to play was not pretty. It was a ball that clanked off a few bodies in the box, finally finding it’s way toward Straub’s foot.

He didn’t strike it well but got just enough on the ball to send it toward net. It meandered its way toward the net, careened off the post and into the net.

Ugly, but effective.

“Garbage goal!” players shouted in near unison at the postgame press conference.

“The last couple games we’ve been creating a ton of chances, and we just couldn’t get to the second ball in the box,” Straub said. “And, today, we finally had a break through.”

Straub’s second strike a short while later was beautiful.

The senior perfectly connected on a free kick from roughly 25 yards out, bending it inside that same left pipe, kissing the ball off the inside of the net to make it 2-0 St. Paul Academy.

A majestic strike, a fortunate bounce or two of the ball — they’re all generally required to win a state title. They’re especially necessary to win three straight.

The top-seeded Spartans completed their three-peat with their 2-0 victory over third-seeded Rochester Lourdes in the Class A title game on Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Each title run is different, and this was undoubtedly the most dramatic for St. Paul Academy (17-3-1), who endured a double-overtime victory in the section semifinals, and won both its state quarterfinal and semifinal matches via penalty kicks. The state final marked the Spartans’ first multi-goal victory of the postseason.

That’s not to say it was easy — far from it. Rochester Lourdes applied a bevy of pressure over the final 20 minutes, but could never find the goal to truly thrust the Eagles (17-4-1) back into the affair.

“I think we generated enough opportunities, but when it’s not your night, it’s not your night,” Rochester Lourdes coach Eric Feil said. “I think, on a different day, it’s a different result. But that’s unfortunately, why everybody loves and hates the game.”

Because the margins are so thin, particularly when the level of competition is so high. It’s why makes St. Paul Academy’s feat all the more impressive.

“It’s just unbelievable. This is a magical thing to be on the right side of a three-peat,” St. Paul Academy coach MaxLipset said. “None of us imagined even two in a row last year after we got the first one.”

Discipline, Straub noted, was critical to the Spartans putting themselves in this position year after year. It was evident at practice, when assistant coach Buzz Lagos would blow the whistle five seconds into play because the defense wasn’t doing things just so. It all had to be perfect.

“There’s no margin for error,” Spartans senior Liam Sullivan said.

It’s why on Thursday evening, rather than staying out and having fun with friends on Halloween, the Spartans players got to bed early. If you don’t put yourself in a position to succeed, you won’t.

Still, there were so many times when things simply could’ve gone a different way. Even early in the season, the Spartans didn’t look like a title team after falling 3-1 to the Eagles in Rochester. That game caused the Spartans to change everything — the roster, the formation and the expectations.

Lipset said he sat down all of the returning starters from last year’s team and asked them what they wanted out of this season.

“And it was really them that said what it is that they thought we needed to do, and, as coaches, we supported that,” he said. “It really came from the boys, and that’s powerful when these guys can say what it means to them, and that puts us in a position to actually coach, because they’re leading.”

Throughout the tight moments during this postseason, the coin continually turned up “Spartans.” At times, soccer can appear to be a game of chance.

But Lipset noted you can make your own luck. St. Paul Academy did it time and time again. St. Paul Academy believes there’s a reason for that — because when things got hairy, the players stuck together and continued to support one another. The strong bonds survived it all.

“We make a mistake, we let up a foul, we give up a goal, we’re always lifting each other up,” Sullivan said. “That just lifts us even more to support each other.”