On the sun-splashed sidelines of the Saints soccer field Saturday afternoon, Xavier Coach Amir Hadzic kept thinking, “Somebody put the ball in the goal.”

At last, in the 55th minute of a scoreless tie, Jerry Duball - the oldest of the three Duball boys on the team - sneaked one past a diving Dubuque Wahlert goal keeper Johnny Klauer from about 10 yards out.

“We were extremely dominant on offense the whole game,” said Saints defensive star Stephen Jones. “We knew it was just a matter of time before we’d score. And Jerry finally did it.”

With the 1-0 substate title, defending Class 2A state champion Xavier returns to the tournament Thursday for the seventh time in Hadzic’s eight years at the helm.

Xavier (9-9) will face Sioux City Heelan (12-3) in the quarterfinals Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the Cownie Soccer Park in Des Moines. The Saints are seeded No. 8 and Heelan is seeded No. 1.

The Saints have won state titles three of the last four years, losing out in the first round in 2012. And they’ve claimed six state titles overall, one less than only Iowa City West.

Ranked No. 4 in Class 2A, they carry a 9-9 record to Des Moines. But Hadzic said that’s deceiving.

“We’re the best 9-9 team in the state,” he said. “Playing the Mississippi Valley Conference, everybody is good.  Every game is hard.”

Of course Wahlert, too, is in the mostly Class 3A MVC. But while coming in with a 4-13 mark and a regular season 6-0 loss to Xavier, Hadzic figured it would be no cakewalk with a tournament berth on the line.

“We knew it would be a tough one,” he said. “They’re one of our biggest rivalries.

“Over the years, it seems, we usually face them at the state tournament. It’s unusual to play them in a substate.”

The Saints were the aggressors right from the start Saturday. “We want to put pressure on them and score early,” Hadzic said.

But it never happened.

Xavier took 15 shots in the first half, with nine of them on goal. The pig-tailed Klauer, however, batted all of them away.

“On a lot of those scrums,” Hadzic noted, “it looked like a pinball machine out there.”

“We had the ball on the offensive end of the field the whole time,” said Jones. “But we couldn’t string anything together.

“And they (Wahlert) really packed it in around the net. They didn’t do much on offense.”

Indeed, Dubuque took only four shots all game (as opposed to 23 by Xavier), and its one goal attempt with three minutes left in the match was easily snuffed by Saints keeper Nick Huss.

For all of the offensive firepower, though, the much deeper, faster and more athletic home team couldn’t crack the scoreboard. In addition, two of its defensive starters were hurt in the first half and did not return.

Hadzic said Mason Hoxie has a possible torn ACL and Jeremy Jacoby a high ankle sprain. While ably replaced by subs Jacob Lacy and Dallas Klein, their status for state is unclear.

Senior Jerry Duball, who was awarded the substate champion banner by his coach for temporary safekeeping, said at halftime of the scoreless match the team was told to regroup and keep their composure.

“The coaches said it wasn’t enough to play good, we had to go for the goal," he said. “They told me to post up.

"And when Josh Hoffman made a beautiful pass and dropped the ball in front of me, the defense kind of scrambled. I just turned toward the goal and placed it in.”

And, at the 25:53 mark, that was all the Saints needed.

“This was a good tune-up for state,” Hadzic said. “I think we’ll do some good things in Des Moines."