MUSCATINE - The top-ranked Xavier girls soccer team fought through the rain and 10th-ranked Independence East Buchanan in their quest for a sixth straight state championship. The Saints won, 4-0, in Thursday's first round of the Class 2A tournament at the Muscatine Soccer Complex.

Now the question for Xavier (17-2) is can it survive the loss of its leading scorer when it faces No. 5 Glenwood (15-1) at 4 p.m. Friday in the semifinals? Kayla Armstrong has 35 goals, but won't be able to play because of a red card she received with 8:22 left in Thursday's game after getting in a tussle with an Independence player.

“A couple plays prior to that she got hit slightly in the back and then there was a little altercation that the ref didn’t see,” Coach Doug Graham said. “Then when the next contact came, Kayla Armstrong responded and was correctly ejected from the game. You cannot do that.”

According to high school state rules, a player must sit out one day’s worth of competition after receiving a red card The Saints will have to find a way to replace Armstrong.

“It will be really difficult, we have never had this happen before, especially at state,” said junior forward Annie Dale. “We are just going to have to adjust to what happened, we can’t take anything back now so we just have to move forward and try to be strong.”

Graham, however, said he is not worried about how the team will respond to losing their leading scorer for a game.

“We have plenty of depth and we can change things around at will,” he said. “Although it is frustrating for me why it happened, and justifiably so, it doesn’t frustrate me. What we are going to do (is) make the adjustments.”

The game was a bit of a sloppy affair, especially in the first half with the rain coming down hard for the entire period.

“The first half was extra rainy, it was kind of hard,” Dale said. “The ball was slippery, everyone was kind of all over the place, had a lot of kick-ball, but we can’t really do anything about the weather so we just have to adjust to it.”

The Saints adjusted quickly, however, putting lots of pressure on the Independence goal and breaking the through with a goal in the 12th minute. Megan Konchar fed the ball to Dale, who was able to knock it around a diving keeper and beat the defender, who was dropping back in a last ditch effort to keep the ball out of goal.

Although the Xavier offense continued to roll and create many good scoring chances, Independence keeper Katelynn Miller came up huge for the Mustangs (15-3) and managed to keep Xavier out of goal for the next 65 minutes.

“She did great,” Graham said. “She made at least three great saves, one especially in the second half. I have great respect for her, she did great.”

Armstrong was finally able to give the Saints a bit of a cushion when she made a run to the backside post and put in a beautiful cross from freshman Marisa Berutti.

Just three minutes later, Armstrong got sent off. Although the Saints were playing a man down after that, they still controlled possession and put in two quick goals shortly after the ejection for the final 4-0 margin.

“With Kayla going out, I think we just realized, ‘Wow, we have to pick it up,’ ” Dale said. “She is a great offensive player so we have to all pick up for what she did out there. So we just went off on a little streak there.”

Xavier 4, Independence-East Buchanan 0

Goals -- Xavier: Annie Dale 2 (12th and 74th min), Kayla Armstrong (69th min), Kelsie Sargent (76th min). Assists -- Xavier: Megan Konchar 2, Marisa Berutti,