JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 17, 2025) – Just three games remain in the 2025 regular season for ETSU men's soccer, and the SoCon title is still in play as they host the Mercer Bears on Saturday night at Summers-Taylor Stadium. Admission is free.
MATCHUP: ETSU (1-6-4, 1-1-0) vs. Mercer (3-7-3, 1-0-1)
DATE: October 18, 2025, 6:00pm
VENUE: Summers-Taylor Stadium (Johnson City, TN)
LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
With three rounds left in SoCon play, five of the conference's six teams are separated by one point, with Mercer and Furman holding four and ETSU, Wofford, and UNCG holding three apiece. The Bucs are aiming for a rebound after falling 3-2 at Furman last week after a hand ball called on video review led to a late penalty kick for the Paladins that put them over the top. It was only ETSU's second loss in the last seven games, but the Buccaneers have mustered just one win in that time with a 2-1 victory over UNC Greensboro on October 4. Junior winger
Jaime Carrillo leads the Bucs with three goals this season, and freshman
Berkay Duman has two in the last three games.
The Bears are 1-5-1 in their last seven games and come to Johnson City after a 3-0 loss to Georgia Southern on Tuesday. Their last SoCon game was a wild 5-4 win at Wofford on October 11 where the Bears led 3-0 at the hour mark and had to hang on for the final 30 minutes. Junior Casillas and Fernando Arteaga both scored twice, including the game-winner for Casillas in the 79th minute.
With 27 previous meetings, Mercer is the most frequent opponent for ETSU men's soccer in its history. The series is level at 10-10-7 after ETSU won 1-0 in Macon last October thanks to
Louie Salkeld cleaning up a loose ball and a nine-save shutout from
Marc Kouadio. Their last regular season meeting in Johnson City was an iconic night: October 28, 2023, when Chris McKenna scored off a corner with three seconds remaining to lift ETSU to a 2-1 win and the outright SoCon regular season championship.
For more information on ETSU men's soccer, go to ETSUBucs.com.
