Xavier High School soccer coach Bailey Winter had a heart-to-heart chat with senior Marisa Berutti during the second half of their Class 2A regional final Monday evening at Heco Field.

The game against 10th-ranked Pella was tied, 0-0, and Winter wanted to remind Berutti about the stakes for the third-ranked Saints and their chase for another state title.

Winter apparently said the magic words.

A few minutes later, Berutti found herself all alone with the ball about 30 yards in front of the Pella goal with the season hanging in the balance she llofted the ball over Pella goal keeper Jeannie Etnyre for the only tally of the game to give Xavier a 1-0 victory and a spot in the Class 2A state tournament Thursday.

The Saints (10-7-1) will begin their pursuit of a ninth straight state title Thursday afternoon against fourth-ranked Ankeny Centennial at the Cownie Soccer Park in Des Moines.

Berutti listened to her coach and produced when it counted, finding the net with 12:34 left in the second half with an assist from Katie Ives.

"Bailey called me out because I wasn't really marking my person and just told me, 'It could be your last game and it's your last game on your home field,'" Berutti related. "It really made it reality and I had to step my game up and do everything I could."

Winter pulled Berutti from the game for a few minutes to deliver her message.

"She's a senior captain and four-year starter," said Winter. "There was obviously a lot of pressure on her, not so much to perform but to lead. And so I have to relay that message to her, and that's what I do.

"I just pulled her off real quick and told her to make sure she kept us going."

Berutti was just as surprised as anyone when she saw a lot of green grass between her and the Pella goal. There was nobody around to stop her from taking a clean shot.

"I kind of lost the person that was defending me," said Berutti, who leads the Saints with 11 goals. "Then I turned and saw that I had like 10 yards around me, so I just took a step and saw the goalie was off the line and just hit it up and over her."

Xavier began winning consecutive state titles in 2006, when all the girls on this year's team were quite young. The Saints have already set the all-time IGHSAU record for most consecutive state titles in any sport, but they'd obviously like to keep it going.

"Nobody wants it to be their year that they end it," said Berutti, one of only four seniors on the squad. "It's a tremendous amount of pressure, so we just take it game by game and take it a game at a time.

"It's a lot of pressure, it really is. I'm not going to lie."

Winter helped Xavier win state titles as a player and assistant coach before becoming the head coach last year, so she knows what her players are going through. She's advised them to focus on winning the 2014 state title, rather than being obsessed with keeping the unprecedented streak alive.

"The pressure that they feel does not have anything to do with the streak," she said. "We've talked about it a lot. We've got the record. It's more about simply wanting to win state. Wanting to go to state, wanting to win state.

"There's pressure, but probably just the typical pressure that all the teams are feeling."

Xavier goal keeper Holly Hazelton could feel the pressure at her end of the field as the scoreless game unfolded deep into the second half.

"It was really intense and I was a little nervous for awhile, especially since it was zero-zero at the half," said Hazelton, a senior. "When Marisa hit the ball in, my heart just soared. It was awesome.

"After that, the mentality changed and we had that winning mentality."