Saturday’s regular-season meeting between St. Thomas Academy and Holy Angels resembled last year’s tie with the teams heading to overtime.

This time, the Cadets emerged victorious after Sam Enderby’s head barely nicked the ball off a corner kick in the 87th minute, pushing St. Thomas Academy to a 2-1 home victory.

Ranked No. 4 in the Class 1A poll, the Cadets (4-1) dealt the Stars their first loss of the season and adding another chapter in a rivalry that’s developed over the past two seasons.

“St. Thomas has gotten the best of us the past three games,” Holy Angels coach Ben Bushman said. "I told the guys to remember this feeling and hopefully we don’t experience this again the rest of the season.”

St. Thomas Academy also defeated an unbeaten Holy Angels team 1-0 in last year’s Class 1A, Section 3 finals.

Following Enderby’s game-winner on Saturday, Abraham Sanchez ran into a Cadets player as both teams were resetting and was issued a yellow card.

Enderby saw it as an accident in the aftermath of a heated game between two budding rivals.

“It was a tense game going in, and at that point, tensions were boiling,” he said. “You gotta respect him for how hard he was playing.”

Cadets senior captain and defender Devin Kennedy suffered an ankle injury with 30 minutes remaining in regulation, which fueled both teams in a scoreless at the time.

Holy Angels (4-1-1) was dominant in the first half, outshooting St. Thomas Academy 3-2, but the Stars sputtered in the second frame and committed numerous fouls.

“I don’t know if it was the height of the match and who we’re playing, but for us to progress like we want to, we need to cut down on those mistakes,” Bushman said.

Bushman and Cadets coach Noel Quinn both said that every foul whistle could have been decided by a coin flip as both teams battled feverishly.

“I think we feel a little lucky to win the game,” Quinn said. “It was very even -- could have been a draw -- we’re happy enough to win, but it’s a little harsh on them.”

The Cadets hammered away at the No. 5-1A Stars' net with free kicks and ended the game outshooting Holy Angels 9-4.

“(The Stars) always seem to give us a hard time, so we have to go out there and show what we can do and usually we get the result we want,” Enderby said.

Noel was the one exception (other than the game being played at St. Thomas Academy) of the stark similarities of the past two games between the rivals.

In his first-year at the helm of the Cadets' program, Noel felt both teams were evenly matched and, if trends continue, could meet again in the section finals.

Noel was the head coach for the Eden Prairie girls' team that took second at the Class 2A state tournament the past two years. In his 10 full seasons coaching in Minnesota, Noel’s teams have won five section titles.

This year there is an extra incentive to advance to the state tournament that’ll be played at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“We want to go to the state tournament and play in that new stadium, that’s everybody's goal this year,” Quinn said. “To be the first group to play there, do they need much more motivation than that?”

After his team went to overtime against Holy Angels again this season, Enderby said both squads are bound to collide in the playoffs.

“I don’t expect to not play those guys again,” he said. “I see this as a Part 1 kind of game. We’ll see them later on in the season.”

Sam Enderby netted the game-winning goal in the second session of overtime as St. Thomas Academy dealt Holy Angels its first loss of the season with a 2-1 home victory Saturday evening.

Vernon Lovegreen scored the game’s first goal with 20 minutes remaining in the game for the Cadets (4-1), who are ranked fourth in the Class 1A coaches’ poll.

Marc-Arthur Shapiro answered less than 30 seconds later on a penalty kill for the No. 5-1A Stars (4-1-1), and the game remained tied for the rest of the half.

In the 87th minute, Alex Tsobanakis redirected a corner kick that Enderby headed the ball past Holy Angels goalkeeper Shea O'Rourke.

O’Rourke stopped seven of nine shots while St. Thomas Academy's Jake Killian stopped all four shots he faced.