A self-professed second-half team, Eden Prairie on Tuesday instead played its best soccer in the first 40 minutes of the Class 2A boys’ state semifinals against Maple Grove.

It then hung on with goals in the final four minutes of play that lifted the Eagles to a 2-0 victory over the Crimson.

“I don’t know if we just thought we could walk on the field and everything would be alright or what,” Eden Prairie coach Vince Thomas said of his team’s muted play for most of the second half. “Give Maple Grove credit; there is a reason they [got] here. But this time it was our turn.”

In the first five minutes of the game, Abdul Omar and Alex Aksoz set the tone for the third-seed Eagles with dead-on chances. Stephan Quie had the best opportunity in the 23rd minute, blasting a shot from 8 yards away square to the face of Crimson keeper PJ Enright.

The Eagles held a 14-5 shots advantage at halftime, yet remained in a scoreless tie.

“I was afraid that was going to come back to haunt us,” Thomas said. “Aye-yei-yei, that was really scary. My heart can’t take that.”

Omar put a temporary stop to the palpitations when he tapped in a goal off a crossing-pass from Dane Niemira with 3:53 to play. Maple Grove’s Andrew Buness drilled a wide-open shot just past the goalpost less than two minutes later, one possession before Omar put the game away with his second goal.

They were the only two shots the Eagles had in the second half.

“But we got the goals somehow,” Omar said.

BRIAN STENSAAS