The line into the newly renovated South Field on the campus of BYU Tuesday evening stretched out the gates and down the sidewalk as hundreds of people waited to see the excitement of men's soccer.

While the visiting team provided all of the fireworks on the field, dominating most of the action on their way to the 3-0 victory, the Cougars are the overall winners as they get to enjoy their improved home field.

"To have brick and mortar out there means something to every soccer team," said BYU head coach Chris Watkins. "Everybody is fighting for things like this, so we're incredibly grateful and lucky to have something like this. And then to be full, it was a great night and a great way to kick off a new soccer stadium."

Real Salt Lake gave many well-known players the chance to enjoy a no-pressure contest including Clint Mathis, Kenny Deuchar, Tony Beltran and Robbie Findley -- the forward who gave RSL the spark it needed to win.

After a lackluster opening for both teams, the pros began to get comfortable 20 minutes into the contest and more of the play took place in the BYU side of the field.

The pressure paid off in the 30th minute as Finlay took advantage of a deflected ball near the top of the box, burying it in the back of the net to put Real Salt Lake in front.

Two minutes later, he doubled the advantage as he got free for a breakaway off a clearance by RSL keeper Kyle Reynish, slid around diving BYU keeper Brandon Gwilliam and slid it easily into the net to make the score 2-0.

"I don't think we came out exactly fantastically but we did some things well," said Real head coach Jason Kreis. "About 15 or 20 minutes in I thought we really started to find the flow. Robbie (Finlay) scored a couple of nice goals and we rolled from there."

The Cougars appeared tentative for much of the game, only loosening up and creating some chances as time wound down and both teams began substituting liberally.

"I was really pleased in the second half our young players went out there with a lot of confidence," Watkins said. "I thought they were very successful of taking what they saw and realizing they could take these guys on."

A late defensive mistake in the 90th minute allowed RSL's Quiney Varella to break free and beat substitute BYU keeper Easton Folster to finish the scoring.

The game took a backseat to the reopening of the new soccer stadium as 3,110 people enjoyed the new facility.

"To have this field as another piece of the soccer community is a really good thing," Kreis said. "We're glad we can be here and help out BYU because they've done a lot to help us out."

The enjoyment of the opening won't last long as the Cougar need to get back to business quickly this weekend as they face a pair of Premier Development League foes with their hopes of making the playoffs on the line.

BYU faces the Vancouver Whitecaps on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at South Field.

• Jared Lloyd can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it