JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Aug. 21, 2024) – The ETSU men's soccer team opens the Allen Vital era on Thursday night when the Buccaneers host Longwood. The season opener, which is the second game of a doubleheader as the women play Tennessee earlier, is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m.
 
GAMEDAY INFO
ETSU (0-0) vs. Longwood (0-0)
Thursday, Aug. 22 • 8:30 p.m.  • Summers-Taylor Stadium • ESPN+ • Live Stats
            *Free admission for all home ETSU soccer matches
 
ABOUT THE BUCS

• The Bucs begin a new era as Allen Vital was named the fifth head coach in program history back on Feb. 12
• Vital comes to Johnson City with 27 years of head coaching experience as he spent 14 years at Carson-Newman and spent the last 13 seasons at his alma mater, Tusculum
• ETSU won the Southern Conference regular season title a year ago after finishing the 2023 campaign with an overall record of 9-5-3 and league mark of 4-0-1
• The Bucs return nine players who logged minutes on the pitch last season, including preseason all-SoCon selection Gabriel Ramos
• Ramos started all 17 matches last season where he tallied six goals, five assists and 17 points … Ramos led the team in goals and points and was tied for the team lead in assists
• Ramos enters his final season in the Blue & Gold with 11 games, 11 assists and 33 points in 54 career matches … Ramos ranks ninth among ETSU career leaders in goals, is tied for seventh in assists and ranks eighth in total points
• Vital and his staff brought in 16 newcomers for the 2024 roster … Of the 16, 11 are freshman and five are transfers
• ETSU has won its last three season openers with wins over Georgia Southern, Longwood and Radford

ABOUT LONGWOOD

• Like the Bucs, Longwood enters a new era on Thursday as Paul Gilbert was named head coach in December
• Gilbert spent the last two seasons at Indiana Tech and has a career record of 68-55-23
• Gilbert went 32-7-13 in his two seasons at Indian Tech
• Last season, the Lancers went 6-6-3 overall and 1-5-1 in Big South Conference action
• Gilbert brought in 21 newcomers to make up the 2024 roster, including 12 players who have previous collegiate experience – half of which saw time at the Division I level
• Last season, Longwood scored 18 goals and allowed 20

SERIES HISTORY

• The Bucs are 2-0 all-time against Longwood
• ETSU defeated the Lancers 4-0 back on Aug. 25, 2022 in Johnson City and collected a 1-0 win on Aug. 27, 2021 in Farmville, Va.
• The two teams played an exhibition match last season in Virginia
• This marks the second time in the last three years the two teams are meeting in the season opener

 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Bucs gear up for their first road match of the season when ETSU travels to South Carolina for a meeting with USC Upstate on Aug. 25 at 6 p.m.
 
For more information on Buccaneer men's soccer, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's soccer tab.