It was more out of frustration than foresight, but the reason Benilde-St. Margaret’s midfielder Aleksa Tataryn took the shot heard ‘round the Metrodome Thursday morning is far less important than the result.

With just under 10 minutes left in the Class 1A championship game against Blake, Tataryn picked up a the ball outside of the penalty area and moved toward the center of the field. Then she struck a 25-yard guided missile into the upper right corner of the net, giving Benilde-St. Margaret’s a 1-0 victory for its second consecutive championship.

“That was a complete surprise. I normally get my goals in close,” a still-stunned Tataryn said well after the game. “But I had been playing the ball across [the field] all game and it wasn’t working. So I saw a chance and figured I’d better take it. I still don’t know how it went in.”

It was the third consecutive year the two teams faced each other for the state championship. Blake won in 2011, Benilde in 2012. Thursday’s match-up, tightly contested throughout, was foreshadowed by an early-season 1-1 tie between the teams.

No surprises, no advantage. It took an anomaly – Tataryn’s shot – to break the deadlock.

“Aleksa is a great ball-striker,” Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Scott Helling-Christy said. “When she gets face-up on the goal, there’s a good chance she’s going to put it where she wants. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Even the Blake players tipped their hats to Tataryn.

“It was an incredible goal,” Blake star forward Lydia Sutton said. “I give so much credit to No. 4 [Tataryn]. That was insane.''