11/3/2026 6:00:00 PM | Men's Soccer
LYNCHBURG, VA. – The Liberty Flames will travel to Johnson City, Tenn., for their first-ever SoCon tournament match Thursday. The No. 5 seed Flames (6-7-2, 3-3 SoCon) will face the No. 4 seed East Tennessee Buccaneers (7-6-5, 2-0-4 SoCon) in a SoCon Quarterfinal match at Summers-Taylor Stadium. The winner of the contest advances to play No.1 seed Furman in a semifinal match on Sunday.
The Flames finished the regular season in fifth place in the SoCon standings with six points. The Buccaneers finished fourth in the conference standings with seven points. When the two teams met during the regular season, ETSU defeated Liberty 2-0 on a rainy evening in Johnson City.
The Flames closed their regular season with back-to-back home victories. Liberty defeated Oral Roberts 2-1 on Oct. 27 and then shut out VMI in a conference match 5-0 on Friday.
Liberty News & Notes
The Flames finished the regular season in fifth place in the SoCon standings with six points. The Buccaneers finished fourth in the conference standings with seven points. When the two teams met during the regular season, ETSU defeated Liberty 2-0 on a rainy evening in Johnson City.
The Flames closed their regular season with back-to-back home victories. Liberty defeated Oral Roberts 2-1 on Oct. 27 and then shut out VMI in a conference match 5-0 on Friday.
Liberty News & Notes
- Liberty won its fourth consecutive home game with a 5-0 victory over VMI. The shutout was the Flames' third shutout of the year. Liberty scored a season-high five goals, led by a hat trick by Ronnie Gorman.
- This past Friday, Liberty had a season-high 33 shots and 15 shots on goal in its win over VMI.
- Liberty has been outscored by its opponents, 25-24 this season. The Flames enter Thursday's match, averaging 14.3 shots per game, while limiting their opponents to 9.3 shots per game.
- Gorman became the first player this season to score three goals in a match. The midfielder now has four goals and four assists for 12 points on the year.
- Gorman and fellow midfielder Javan Ochieng are tied for the Liberty lead and are sixth in the SoCon with four assists each.
- After missing eight games due to injury, Liberty's leading scorer Samson Kpardeh returned to game action against Oral Roberts on Oct. 27. Kpardeh has scored seven goals for 14 points on the season. He has scored at least one goal in six games of the seven games he has played in this season.
- Liberty goalkeeper Dan Rose has started 13 games this season. The sophomore has played the full 90 in 12 of Liberty's 15 matches this season. Rose has posted a 1.68 goals-against and a .588 save percentage over 1125 minutes.
- Ochieng scored his first goal of the season for the Flames on Tuesday. The midfielder was called up to the Kenya National Team at the end of September and made his first appearance with the team this month.
- Midfielder Kyohei Eguchi is the only Flame to see action in all 15 games this season. Meanwhile, defender Roope Salo has the most starts. He has started 14 games.
- The Flames have players from 13 different countries and six different continents.
- Liberty head coach Scott Wells is in his first season with the Flames. He previously coached at Gardner-Webb, leading the Runnin' Bulldogs to the Big South Conference Championship in 2024.
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's SoccerSaturday, October 31
Wednesday, September 30
Sunday, September 27
Tuesday, May 19