NOVI >> The Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks edged past the Okemos Wolves 1-0 late Tuesday to advance to the regional finals.

The Shamrocks scored the game’s only goal with 7:44 to play in the first half when Julian Quick fired a shot from 30 yards out that snuck inside the near post.

“I kind of just saw the ball scramble in the middle, and I saw my teammate Kei (Zarko) beneath me. I really just made the diagonal run to the corner, and he found my feet. I got lucky the defender slipped and took a touch past him, and I just drove it near post past the keeper,” Quick said.

Other than the goal, there were very few chances for either side.

The Shamrocks came close earlier in the first half with a flurry of shots from in close that Wolves goalie Griffin White somehow kept out of the net with a little help from his defense. Okemos had seven shots on goal itself, but while few were dangerous, the Wolves just missed by bundling a ball over the line about six minutes into the second half.

But for the most part, the Shamrocks were defensively solid all night, giving Okemos very few quality scoring chances.

“Defensively, we’ve been solid pretty much all year. There’s a few things that we had early that we corrected, so I’d say from midseason on we’ve been defensively really sound,” Shamrocks head coach Gene Pulice said.

After a slow start to the season, the Shamrocks appear to be peaking at the right time. Catholic Central started the season 3-5-1 but have now lost just once in their last 11 games.

“We play on grit and adrenaline. That’s what we do. Coming back from a rough beginning of the season where, now all of the sudden, we’re in a regional final. These guys here, they worked super hard,” Pulice said. “You always want to peak in the post season, right? I mean, it would be nice to win every game you play from the first game of the season to the last. But we know that’s not realistic. So we’re peaking at the right time,” he added.

The Shamrocks (10-6-3) will move on to face Oxford in Thursday’s regional final. The game will be a rematch from last year’s regional semifinal, which Catholic Central won 2-0.

“It’s going to be another grind. Adam Bican always has their guys well-prepared. They handily got out of their regional semi. So it’s going to be a battle, and I guess I wouldn’t expect anything less from a good quality team with a good quality coach,” Pulice said.