EPHRAIM—The Snow College men’s and women’s soccer teams faced a familiar fate last week.
For the fourth season in a row, it was the Badgers against the Salt Lake Community College Bruins in a battle to claim the Scenic West Athletic Conference championship, both for the men’s and women’s title. This year’s iteration of the tense rivalry turned out a bummer for the Badgers, as the Bruins ended both their seasons.
Snow men’s team fell, 2-0, in a tough matchup with undefeated SLCC, the No. 1 team in the nation per NJCAA rankings.
The No. 2 Lady Badgers were evenly matched with the No. 6 Lady Bruins, but it’s hard to beat a good team three times, and after sweeping SLCC in the regular season, 1-0 and 2-1, SLCC got the better of the Lady Badgers in the game that mattered most as Snow women’s team fell, 1-0, suffering their first and only loss of the 2021 season.
In the men’s game, Snow got down early as the Bruins scored twice in the first 40 minutes. SLCC’s shot selection valued quality over quantity as the Badgers outshot them, 13-7, and had more shots on goal, 6-4, but the spectacular defense and goalie presence of SLCC dominated as the Bruins had only allowed three goals the entire season, two of them in one of their games against Snow.
To say the game was a chippy affair would be the understatement of the season. Ten players were carded in regulation. The Bruins had seven yellow cards pulled on them, and even had a red card pulled on their midfielder, a rare occurrence in college soccer.
The loss ended Snow’s men’s season at 11-5, with a final ranking of No. 20 in NJCAA polls.
The women’s game was a close contest throughout. Ranked fourth in the nation in goals scored, the Lady Badgers leaned on their offense and barraged SLCC’s goalkeeper with shots from everywhere, taking 13 total shots to SLCC’s five. They had five shots on goal to SLCC’s three. It was, however, to no avail, as the Lady Bruins posted their seventh-straight shutout in a revenge game against the Lady Badgers.
Snow women finished their season with a 16-1 overall record. They ranked No. 5 in the last poll by the NJCAA.