The neutrino burst detected during supernova SN 1987A is explained in a strangeon star model,in which it is proposed that a pulsar-like compact object is composed of strangeons (strangeon:an abbreviation for "strange nucleon").A nascent strangeon star's initial internal energy is calculated,with the inclusion of pion excitation (energy around 1053 erg,comparable to the gravitational binding energy of a collapsed core).A liquid-solid phase transition at temperature ~ 1-2 MeV may occur only a few tens of seconds after core collapse,and the thermal evolution of a strangeon star is then modeled.It is found that the neutrino burst observed from SN 1987A can be reproduced in such a cooling model.