Julia Saenz's job is to score goals.

A senior forward on the St. Mary's High School girls soccer team, Saenz has scored more goals than any player in school history. By a wide margin.

Thursday night, she might have scored the Pirates' most important, and prettiest, goal in leading St. Mary's to a 1-0 victory against Kent Denver in a Class 3A state semifinal game at Pirate Field on the Englewood High School campus.

With time running out in a scoreless match, Becca Morales sent a beautiful pass from about 30 yards out and to the left of the box to a streaking Saenz on the right side. Saenz then headed it past Sun Devils keeper Hayley Kraus.

"Probably one of my best in my career," Saenz said of her goal, her 26th of the year and 73rd as a Pirate. "In practice, we work on crosses. My wings are incredible passers, and I always try to head them in. It's nice to get one in a game."

Saenz's goal capped a great half of soccer by the third-seeded Pirates (15-3). St. Mary's dominated play in the final 40 minutes, with Saenz, Christina Whitelaw and Morales applying constant pressure on the Sun Devils (13-5).

And while that amounted to five shots on goal in the second half, the Pirates had at least that many attempts sail high or wide.

"We were having trouble putting the ball on frame," St. Mary's coach Gregg Braha said. "That's where trouble finishing starts. You need to put the ball in that 8-by-24 space."

Saenz finally did that in the 76th minute, lifting the Pirates to their second consecutive state championship game. Last year, in the team's first trip to the final in school history, Braha said St. Mary's was a little overwhelmed during the 3-1 loss to Kent Denver.

But this year, he expects the Pirates to be more relaxed when they take the pitch Saturday night in the championship game.

"I think they wanted to get here so badly and now that we're here, we can kind of exhale," Braha said.

The loss spoiled seventh-seeded Kent Denver's bid to become the first three-peat champion in state history.

"We had high expectations," first-year coach Krista Sahrbeck said. "Winning three, which had never been done before in Colorado history, was very much our goal. Having that elephant in the room was sometimes tough to deal with."

Kent Denver0 0 - 0

St. Mary's0 1 - 1

Goals - St. Mary's, Julia Saenz (Becca Morales assist), 76th minute.

Shots on goal - KD, 4-1 5; SM, 2-5 7 Saves Â? KD (Hailey Kraus) 2-4 6; SM (Katie Loof) 4-1 5. Corner kicks - KD, 1-1 2; SM, 1-3 4. Cards - None.