![\"Mike](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-1.jpg\")
With a resounding 1-0 victory over the Franciscan Barons on Saturday, the Grove City College men\u2019s soccer team asserted their place atop the PAC, clinching the conference\u2019s coveted 2025 championship and automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This PAC championship win \u2014 just the third in the team\u2019s storied history \u2014 marks the end of the program\u2019s 20-year conference title drought and serves as a rallying point for the Wolverines as they prepare for their NCAA appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was truly electric; the boys played with grit and passion like their lives were on the line for this game. They left everything on the field to take home this PAC title and punch our ticket to the NCAA tournament. None of us will ever forget this moment,\u201d freshman keeper Keller Kreiger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am super excited for the team. This group of seniors has been to the finals three years in a row, and to see them celebrate and enjoy this is awesome,\u201d Head Coach Mike Dreves added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dreves, an alumnus of the program and member of the 1996 PAC title team, celebrates his 20th season at the helm with this long-awaited victory. Throughout his career, he has led the Wolverines to 197 wins and 18 PAC conference tournament appearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI loved playing here and love coaching here. I have been blessed to win a conference title as a player, assistant coach and now as a head coach, and that means a lot. Over the past few days, countless alumni have reached out. I know it means a lot, but what guys have shared, how they have reacted, I am learning that it has meant much more than I ever thought it would,\u201d Dreves said. \u201cEvery team I have coached has helped me make this program better in some way and helped make me a better coach, so in many ways this is as much a championship for all the alumni as it is for this team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grove City opened the match with what proved to be a key defensive stand as Krieger saved a Franciscan penalty kick at 11:45 in the match to preserve the 0-0 tie. Krieger would go on to tally an additional seven saves to cement the Wolverines\u2019 title hopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capitalizing on this momentum shift, the top-seeded Wolverines pushed the ball up field to senior midfielder Aidan Eck, who netted the game\u2019s winning goal at 16:54 Eck\u2019s breakthrough goal were sophomores Luke Ladas and Evan Yoder \u2014 truly making this goal a comprehensive team effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The remainder of the match saw the two talented defenses do battle, locking the game in a stalemate that proved crucial to the Wolverines\u2019 success. Maintaining an edge in total shots (14-11) and working against a corner kick deficit (2-6), the Wolverines emerged 75 minutes with their well-earned PAC title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is such an honor, and I\u2019m so grateful to be a part of the team. Coach Dreves reminded the team after the game that winning is not what defines our team, but that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t celebrate like crazy when we achieve our goal,\u201d Eck said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs we look to the NCAA tournament, I think we are coming in with confidence in our ability to compete with any team in the country as well as an excitement to go do something that hasn\u2019t been done before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, Grove City learned they would face Calvin College in the first round of the NCAA tournament. This pairing \u2014 a rematch of the teams\u2019 Sept. 20 game that was canceled halfway through due to weather conditions \u2014 is unique by NCAA tournament standards and may prove favorable for the Wolverines as they prepare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI trust if it is God\u2019s will, we will bring home the victory this week. I know if the boys just fall back on their skills and play how we have been playing this whole season, we can be victorious,\u201d Krieger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Wolverines will face the Knights this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. in Geneva, N.Y.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Wolverine winner 20 years in the making<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[70,39,24],"class_list":["post-1158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-soccer","tag-mia-gallagher","tag-issue-2025-11-14","tag-sports"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-1.jpg",1280,841,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-1.jpg",150,99,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-1.jpg",300,197,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-1.jpg",768,505,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-1.jpg",1024,673,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-1.jpg",1280,841,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-1.jpg",1280,841,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A Wolverine winner 20 years in the making","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1861,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions\/1861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Freshman](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-11-14-28-grove-city-tops-pac-2.jpg\")
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