Xavier girls’ soccer coach Bailey Dorrington hopes to get a more balanced offense before the team’s next game in the Class 2A regional finals, but she wasn’t too upset with Tuesday’s 6-0 win over Independence.

“Ideally, we’d like to spread that out a bit more,” Dorrington said after the regional semifinal at Xavier’s Heco Field. “But right now, it’s you lose, you’re done, I don’t care who scores.”

The top-ranked Saints will host No.9 Waverly-Shell Rock in the regional finals Monday at 5 p.m., with the winner advancing to the state tournament in Des Moines.

Senior co-captains Kayla Armstrong (four goals) and Sammi Shepard (two) accounted for the Saints’ scoring in a match that at first seemed a defensive struggle. After Armstrong opened the scoring in the fifth minute, Independence and its junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Thompson stifled Xavier’s attack for the rest of the first half.

“We definitely didn’t start out as well as we’d like to,” said Dorrington, noting Thompson “did a great job.”

But experience – Xavier has nine seniors on its roster compared to two for Independence – can afford a coach some flexibility. Among the changes at half was moving Shepard from defender to forward, the first time she’s played the position, according to Dorrington. The coach said it was her team’s idea.

“They said we should put Sammi up front, so we did,” Dorrington said.

Shepard responded with the second half’s first goal at 34:18. Armstrong added another just 1:02 later, and Shepard scored again just over a minute after that.

Xavier (15-1) recorded 53 shots, 23 on goal. Independence (10-7) took all three of its shots, one on goal, in the first half.

The Saints have won seven state titles in a row, an IGHSAU record.

Armstrong, who has signed with Drake, has scored 35 goals in 16 games this season.

Monica Bussie, Armstrong and Lizzy Bailey collected assists Tuesday.