As the final treble whistle echoed around Ted Slavin Field, it was made silent by the raucous cheers of fans. Micah Rossen ‘25 was being mobbed by friends, teammates and fans as people around the grounds realized that the boys soccer team had just become CIF Division 3 Regional Champions, only a week after winning the CIF-SS Division 2 final.
The Wolverines defeated Bell High School in a 3-2 overtime winner Saturday afternoon. Although they entered the regional competition in a lower division, as the first seed, they secured large victories of 6-2 and 4-0 before squaring off with the Eagles.
In the championship game, the Wolverines managed control throughout. The two goals they conceded came off of quick mistakes, which the Bell strikers were able to capitalize on. Except for the two breakaways, the ball was kept mostly on the offensive.
The game opened with a goal from striker Theo Ottoson ‘25. Ottosson was fed a ball from Race Serota ’25, leading him into space, where he split a pair of Eagles defenders. From there, he only had the goalie to beat and did as such — slotting the ball into the bottom left corner, making the game 1-0 within the first minute of play.
The characteristic defense contained the Eagles’ strikers early, feeding into the offense by finding their forwards further up the field. Their midfield, led by Kevin Chen ‘25, Cole Grossman ‘25 and Serota, was able to dominate their area of the pitch, allowing the squad to assert their pace of play from the start.
High work rates were seen across the pitch, most notably from Dominic Landes ‘25, Roen Bailey ‘25 and Tyler Park ‘25, who forced many passing attempts from the opposing team to be errant and misplaced. In addition, the defensive help of Chen, Grossman, Sam Reiner ‘25, Reid Romans ‘27 and Jack Letterman ‘25 were able to form a solid back line, cutting off passing lanes and making interceptions in the process.
This allowed the Wolverines to mount quick attacks and have fast build-up play, which would push the ball forward, either centrally or with width along the wings. By utilizing the pace of Landes, Letterman, and Serota, the Wolverines could successfully push the ball upfield from all levels. This, combined with incisive passing from nearly everyone, allowed the ball to reach the attackers in a good position.
Letterman scored a back post volley shortly after Ottosson’s goal, but it was brought back via an offsides call. Bell goalkeeper Edgar Merida managed to make several saves, preventing shots on-goal from being potential scores.
Before the second-half whistle blew, there was a crucial scoring opportunity for the Eagles, their first of the game. Their captain, Erick Grimaldo ‘25 had broken away with the ball and sprinted forward on a fast break with only goalkeeper Jackson Freidman ‘27 to beat. Friedman, who had been incredible throughout the postseason, slightly mistimed his challenge, catching Grimaldo’s foot and sending him sprawling. There was an ensuing penalty kick where Grimaldo made the game 1-1, going into the half.
The Wolverines’ momentum, which had been cut by the Eagles’ equilizer, was now back at full volume in the second half. Meanwhile, for the Eagles, there appeared to be a lack of cohesion, evidenced by their inability to string passes together, deciding to opt for long balls to try and get past the defense. Unfortunately for them, defenders were level to the task and threatened them at nearly every turn.
Later, there was another Wolverine fast break with Ottoson working one-on-one with a defender. He beat one man, then when another took his place, Ottoson created separation and delivered a powerful inswinging cross directed towards the back post. Rossen was there, lying in wait and positioning himself to redirect a powerful header screaming above the keeper’s outstretched gloves.
The ensuing 20 minutes had the Eagles being forced into an all-out defense as they continued facing an onslaught of Wolverine attacks, many of which were saved by Merida. However, in stoppage time, a miscommunication between Landes and Letterman allowed Grimaldo to break out in front between both of them, who surged in with a turn of pace and slotted the ball in to make it 2-2, saving his team and sending the match to overtime with seconds to spare.
Golden-goal overtime — in which the first team to score wins the match — commenced, and after the teams exchanged possessions, on a Wolverines offensive, a ball sliced between two Eagles defenders and fell into the perfectly positioned lap of Rossen, standing in front of the goal. Rossen, barely with time to compose himself and his shot, dribbled to the goal and sent a ball to the goalie’s left, beating the keeper.
Romans said although winning the Division 2 Southern Section championship was the team’s main priority, the team continued to give effort into winning regionals.
“It’s the best I’ve ever felt, even better than our last championship,” Romans said. “We peaked at the right time. We gave great team chemistry and we wanted to do this for the seniors.”
Park said the culmination of his soccer journey in winning a championship with his longtime teammates made it especially memorable for him.
“I’m overwhelmed with emotion,” Park said. “I’ve been playing with these boys since seventh grade, some even earlier, and to win it all is just a dream come true. We’ve never done this in all our years in high school history, and it’s just a dream come true to have the boys that we’ve worked hard for all our high school career get an accomplishment like this.”
