GRAND RAPIDS - Grand Rapids FC's Noble Sullivan shared a quick embrace with his coach after Friday night's 1-0 victory over Indy Eleven at Houseman Field.

"You can count on me to save the day," Sullivan was overheard telling George Moni.

Actually, Sullivan did more than that. The 2009 Grand Rapids Catholic Central graduate helped save GRFC's playoff dreams before 6,912 fans.

Sullivan's goal in the 70th minute was the difference in the National Premier Soccer League Midwest Regional semifinal. The victory sends GRFC into Saturday's 7:30 p.m. regional finals against AFC Cleveland, which defeated Ann Arbor in Friday's opening game.

Saturday's winner will advance to the July 30 national semifinals at a site to be determined.

"It was a lot of hard work from the midfielders to get the ball up to me, and I just kind of switched gears for a second," said Sullivan, who played at the University of Michigan. "We knew their backline would be tired, especially after playing the first half in such sweltering heat. I didn't think too much about it. I just hit it and it went in."

Grand Rapids, which earned homefield advantage for this weekend's tournament, had four shots in the game's first 10 minutes. But Indy survived GRFC's early onslaught, with goalkeeper Cody Schweitzer keeping GRFC off the scoreboard.

But GRFC continued to keep the pressure on during the second half and was able to break through after Sullivan took a feed from Lito Esquivel.

"It was a Superman effort, but at the end of the day, it was a team effort," Moni said. "He put icing on top of the cake, but from our goalkeeper to our defenders and our midfielders, we worked tirelessly up and down the field.

"We are not here by chance. We are here because we prepared really hard. We are committed and dedicated and we have a family atmosphere. We believe in each other."

GRFC, which captured the Great Lakes West championship this summer, limited Indy's opportunities. In fact, goalkeeper Noah Fazekas said his teammates made his job easy for him.

"We were all over them for the first 20, 25 minutes, but they held us off," Fazekas said. "From there on out, we knew it was going to be a battle back and forth.

"It was an easy day for me because I didn't have to do much. The defense played a perfect game. I don't think I had to make a save. It was an all-around team effort that got us the win."

GRFC will have to take on a Cleveland team that defeated Ann Arbor in a shootout, 4-2. It was be the first meeting between the two teams.

"We are going to talk to the coaches and prepare ourselves for tomorrow," Moni said. "We have to make sure we are focused and prepared. The thing is that we have to play our strengths. It's very easy to lose focus and focus too much on the competition and forget our own strengths.

"We talked before the game about the positives that we have, the record that we have on this field (10-1). The support we have from our fans is unbelievable. It gives us a lot of energy."