The Wakefield Warriors lived up to their potential during the 2025 boys high-school soccer season, especially during the playoffs.
The team made it to the championship match of the 6D North Region tournament, before being upended by the Herndon Hornets, 2-0.
Wakefield had made it this far in the region tournament only one other time, in 2018.
Wakefield had defeated Herndon, 2-1, during the regular season, but lost to the Hornets, 1-0, in the Liberty District-tourney semifinals.
In the region final, Wakefield trailed 1-0 at halftime, with Herndon scoring its other goal in the second.
Wakefield (10-5-3) was 2-1 in the region tournament with two overtime wins and playing all three games on the road.
The Warriors upset the Chantilly Chargers, 3-2, in overtime in the first round. Next, they did the same to the Liberty District champion and top seed McLean Highlanders in the semifinals, winning 4-2 in penalty kicks after no score during regular and overtime play.
That semifinal victory earned Wakefield a berth into the Class 6 state tournament. It will be the only Arlington team represented.
Starting the season with 11 seniors, of which nine start, Wakefield coach Eddie Carrasquillo said the experience gave the Warriors an edge. Seniors Erik Vasquez Ayala, Ryan Goff-Glennon, Vajk Dawson and Ricardo Perez-Justiniano have been on the varsity team all four years.
Once Wakefield reached the postseason, the coach’s message to the team was to play the Warriors’ type of game and compete as if they had nothing to lose.
“They have responded, our guys are locked in and now the seniors don’t want the season to end,” Carrasquillo told ARLnow. “With our seniors, it was not unexpected to have something special happen. We are playing our game and pulling out the wins.”
In the region-semifinal win over McLean, Carrasquillo said Wakefield didn’t change much after its regular-season loss to the Highlanders.
“We watched film and told the guys what McLean wanted to do, and our players did a heck of a job taking advantage of that information,” said Carrasquillo, in his ninth year as Wakefield’s coach.
In the win over Chantilly, Wakefield rallied from a 2-0 deficit. Senior Graysen Colglazier scored the game-winning goal in overtime on a backward header. Senior Bruce Gonzales Cordova scored two goals and Dawson had an assist on the winning goal.
Goalie Andrew Jackson got the win, making four saves.
Against McLean, Goff-Glennon, Perez-Justiniano, Gonzales Cordova and Jerry Lopez-Felix made the penalty kicks. Jackson saved one McLean penalty kick.
Wakefield’s biggest regular-season highlight was winning the Arlington Cup for the first time in years. The trophy is awarded to the Arlington team that did the best against county rivals during the regular season.
All three teams had 1-1 records in those matches. Wakefield was awarded the cup because it had the best overall regular-season record.
Other Wakefield seniors this season are Andrew Soto, Gustavo Gonzales, Elvin Yapura-Adriazola, Emmanuel Ashley and Shem Tewolde.
NOTES: Chosen first-team all-region for Wakefield were Gonzales Cordova and Perez-Justiniano. Making second team was Vasquez. Chosen first-team all-district were Vasquez, Gonzales Cordova, Perez-Justiniano and Goff-Glennon. Making second-team all-district were Colglazier and Soto. Honorable-mention choices were Lopez-Felix, Jackson and junior Brady Keefe … The state-tournament berth is Wakefield’s second in program history. The first came in 2018 under Carrasquillo, when the Warriors reached the Class 5 state competition.
