JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 30, 2026) – It's all on the line on Decision Day in the SoCon.
The ETSU men's soccer team heads to UNCG to conclude the 2026 regular season schedule. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at UNCG Soccer Stadium. The winner of the matchup is guaranteed at least the No. 2 seed in the 2026 SoCon Men's Soccer Championship and could be the outright regular season champion if Furman defeats Wofford in a game happening at the same time in Greenville. The top two seeds earn a bye directly to the tournament's semifinals on November 8.
MATCHUP: ETSU (7-6-4, 2-0-3) at UNCG (5-2-8, 2-0-3)
DATE: Saturday, October 31, 7:00 p.m.
VENUE: UNCG Soccer Stadium (Greensboro, North Carolina)
TV: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast
The Bucs enter the final game of the regular season having played a game of denial. They have not scored in 207:37 of game time dating back to the second half of their game at Winthrop on October 13, but they have not conceded a goal in a whopping 424:34 of game time dating back to the 25:26 mark of their game against Gardner-Webb on October 6. The streak is the third longest in program history, and ETSU can surpass the record mark of 487:56 set in 2013 if they hold UNCG off the board for the first 63:23 of Saturday's contest. Three different goalkeepers have kept clean sheets for the Bucs this season: Noé Delmotte has a SoCon-leading four shutouts, while
Sam McGee and
Elijah Keener have one apiece and combined for an additional one against Presbyterian . ETSU will be without freshman center back
Micah Kwende, who was issued a red card against Furman last Saturday.
Despite their recent offensive inconsistency,
Jaime Carrillo remains one of the SoCon's top goal scorers with eight, and
Gavin Dick needs a goal or two assists to break the freshman points record set by Hauk Andreas Fossen in 2019. Fossen scored eight goals for 16 total points in his first college soccer campaign. He needs one assist to tie and two assists to break Abdi Bahur's freshman record of six, set in ETSU's regular season championship campaign in 2024.
The Spartans have been able to find the net but have been similarly vexed in terms of results. They have played to three consecutive 1-1 draws with High Point, Wofford, and most recently Furman on Thursday. Keaviano Francis has scored three times in the last four games with a brace at VMI and a 3rd minute strike to open the scoring against High Point. Goalkeeper Seth Wilson is tied with Delmotte atop the SoCon with four shutouts.
This is one of the most hotly contested series in the SoCon, with the Bucs and Spartans having each won eight of the prior 23 meetings and tying the remaining seven. ETSU has won two of the last three with a stunning 6-0 rout of the 10-man Spartans on October 6, 2023, and an equally stunning upset of the No. 10 ranked Spartans on October 4 of last year thanks to a piece of direct free kick sorcery from
Berkay Duman.
For more information on ETSU men's soccer, go to ETSUBucs.com.
