JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Sept. 24, 2026) – With just over a quarter of their season left, the ETSU men's soccer team faces a pivotal, emotionally charged moment on Saturday night. The Bucs face the Liberty Flames on Saturday at 6 p.m. as they honor their senior class at Summers-Taylor Stadium. Admission is free for all ETSU soccer matches.
MATCHUP: ETSU (5-6-2, 1-0-1) vs. Liberty (4-4-2, 2-1-0)
DATE: Saturday, October 10, 2026, 6 p.m.
VENUE: Summers-Taylor Stadium (Johnson City, Tennessee)
TV: ESPN+ (
Keith Brake)
LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast
The Bucs are one of three unbeaten teams left in the SoCon, along with UNCG and Wofford, the latter of whom the Bucs played to a 1-1 draw on September 19.
Jaime Carrillo leads the Bucs and the SoCon with eight goals so far this season, ranking him 11th in the country and tied for the ninth-most in a campaign at ETSU.
Gavin Dick leads the SoCon with five assists and is one of two players to appear in the top 10 in the league in both goals and assists, the other being fellow Buccaneer
Elliot Edwards. ETSU boasts the SoCon's top scoring offense and ranks 23rd in the country in total goal scored with 24.
ETSU will honor eight seniors on Saturday at their penultimate home game: goalkeepers
Will Bowers and
Sam McGee, outside back
George Chunuwe, midfielder Koké Gracia, wingers
Noah Franks,
Caleb Powell, and
Shewit Worton, and longtime student photographer Mikayla Gerstein.
The Flames have been decimated by injuries at the sharp end of their formation but have stayed resilient and capitalized on a pair of home opportunities with a 1-0 win over Furman on September 26 and a 3-0 rout of Mercer last Saturday to take first place in the SoCon. Pablo Matavele and Roope Salo are the only two Flames to start all 10 games so far this season. Matavele has two goals and two assists and Salo has two assists. Samson Kpardeh has six goals and ranks second in the SoCon, but has not played since September 6 at American University.
ETSU and Liberty have met twice before in men's soccer, with this being their first meeting as conference foes after the Flames joined the SoCon as a men's soccer affiliate in June of this year. The Bucs have won both previous meetings by 1-0 scores, most recently in 2017 when a Richmond Taylor header off a Bruno Andrade corner in the 37th minute proved decisive for ETSU in Lynchburg.
For more information on ETSU men's soccer, go to ETSUBucs.com.
