by Jac Coyne | MCLA.us

LA CROSSE, Wis. – Rare are the games that will bring all three tenses – past, present and future – to the forefront of the same conflict.

The clash between No. 2 Utah and No. 5 Brigham Young on Thursday night in Salt Lake City will be one of them.

For starters, the contest is very much about the past.

Ute Soccer Field UofU Campus
4/19@7:00PM MST
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@BYULacrosse defends it's @MCLA 22 year undefeated regular season winning streak against @UtahLacrosse for the final time.....
— BYU Lacrosse (@BYULacrosse) April 15, 2018

As the Brigham Young Twitter account outlined, in the 22 years that the Cougars and the Utes have been squaring off in the MCLA – and they’ve been in the same conference for all of it – BYU has never lost to their Northern neighbor.

That is some serious baggage. And it’s not like the Utes have been a doormat. They qualified for the MCLA tournament back in ’05 and have had numerous quality seasons along the way.

Just last year, the Utes brought a 10-3 record into the season finale in Provo and lost by six. A week later as the top seed in the RMLC tourney, Utah lost to the Cougars again by six.

BYU’s past ownership of this rivalry, if it can be called that, is thorough.

Moving to the present, this game has everything you’d want.

The top seed in the RMLC tournament, which begins next week in Orem, goes to the winner. The victor will also likely be moved to the No. 2 seed by the selection committee for the time being.

With Chapman facing little resistance as it waltzed through the soft end of its schedule, Utah and BYU should be considered the two hottest teams in Division I currently.

As the pair each held serve in Colorado last week, one could sense the tension building toward this game on Thursday night.

We’ll have two teams playing their best lacrosse at the exact same time.

There are a pair of future components.

In a couple of weeks, the top teams descend on the Salt Lake City Regional Athletic Complex for the 2018 MCLA National Championships powered by Under Armour. In relative geographical terms, it is in the backyard of both Utah and BYU.

As such, each will be under massive pressure.

BYU’s pressure lies in snapping a four-year streak of not making it past the quarterfinals.

Further, for a team with the second most titles in MCLA history, the Cougars haven’t played on Saturday since 2011 when they stole Arizona State’s thunder.

BYU needs to get back, and soon.

Utah’s pressure underscores the second future aspect.

This is it. The MCLA journey ends in a couple of weeks as the Utes embark on their NCAA adventure. As such, like Michigan before it, there is an expectation to go out in an unblemished burst of light.

To take a loss and have it be at the hands of its decades-long tormentor would linger like a Charley horse – nothing debilitating, but something that annoys for far longer than it should.

If one asked the coaching staffs and players on both teams about this game, they would undoubtedly reinforce the notion that this is just one game on the schedule and there is plenty of season left for both of them.

No one would believe them.

This is a must-win game for both, as the past, present and future will forever be altered by its outcome. That's why you'll be watching Thursday night.