TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (October 25, 2018) - When Salt Lake Community College added men's-and-women's-soccer to their list of NJCAA-sanctioned sports, the department was confident it could have a competitive program quickly.

Little did the Bruins know how quickly those competitive programs would turn into winning programs; for instance, the No. 14 SLCC men's soccer program just won its first Scenic West Athletic Conference championship and has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation during this season. Along with the spoils of victory comes the opportunity to host postseason events, which is what Salt Lake will do this week as they host the Region 18 championships Friday and Saturday at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.

The four-team tourney will send a winner on to the NJCAA District championships, which will then send a qualifier on to the national tourney. The opportunity for Salt Lake's season to be memorialized by even-greater success starts at home, much to the delight of SLCC coach Mark Davis.

"A great reward for our regular-season title is hosting postseason competition," he said. "Our players set the goal in the preseason of being league champions, and we have an opportunity to continue making history this year with continued success."

Salt Lake will start Friday with a matchup against fourth-seeded USU Eastern, who qualified for the tourney with a 4-8 record in conference. The Bruins beat the Eagles in all three of their matchups this season, including a 2-0 sweep last week that gave Salt Lake the SWAC title. SLCC had a season-long margin of victory of 12-1 over USU Eastern.

In spite of the success, Davis said postseason play brings a different level of expectation.

"The level of intensity that we will need to bring this weekend in order to be successful is high," he said. "Every opponent will be focused on exploiting any mistakes, so we don't have room to be lackadaisical in our approach."

Friday's match will start at 5:00 p.m., with an earlier match between Snow College and Southern Nevada starting at 1:00 p.m. The winner of the two semifinals will play for the Region 18 championships on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Zions Bank Stadium. 

Recaps, as well as live stats for the matches, can be found at scenicwestsports.com, as well as slccbruins.com. The All-Region 18 teams will also be announced this weekend, with coverage on slccbruins.com.