Survive is the name of the game, and that’s exactly how the Park City Miners felt on Wednesday night against the Cedar Valley Aviators in Eagle Mountain.
Needing a win to clinch the outright Region 10 championship, the Miners went into their game against Cedar Valley severely banged up. Multiple starters were out while a number of others were on a snap count, mostly due to precautionary reasons.
But like head coach Josh Montzingo told his team at the end of the game, it doesn’t matter if it’s pretty or ugly; a win is a win. Park City rallied late in the fourth quarter to defeat the Aviators 24-21, clinching back-to-back Region 10 titles.
“It’s not easy to do, to win back-to-back so I couldn’t be prouder of the boys tonight,” Montzingo said. “This was always our goal, to go undefeated in region play and win the title. … But to do it in the way we did tonight with having so many guys step up, it’s special.”
Theoretically and based on overall records, the Miners should’ve had very little problem with the Aviators. But Montzingo credits the Cedar Valley staff for executing a great game plan, something the Miners expected going into the game.
“We saw on film that they’re an extremely disciplined team, and obviously well-coached,” Montzingo said. “We knew they would have a good game plan and I think it was better than we were anticipating, so credit to them. But credit to our other coaches who made the adjustments in the second half. That was a high-quality football game tonight.”
The drama really began to unfold midway through the fourth quarter with the Miners leading 17-7 following a 12-yard touchdown run by senior Seth Warner. But Cedar Valley marched down the field on the ensuing drive and scored, making it 17-14 with 5:30 to play.
After a Park City three-and-out on offense, the Aviators drove 91 yards to take the 21-17 lead with just 1:42 to play.
But this was a position the Miners were comfortable in after having come from behind on a last-minute drive to defeat Stansbury earlier in the season.
“When we got the ball back and saw how much time was left, we knew that was plenty of time for us to do something special,” junior Carson Tabaracci said. “We’d been there before and it worked before, so having that confidence in one another, we knew we could do it. And to do it to win the championship, it was awesome.”
Park City drove the ball 73 yards, with Tabaracci sealing the victory with a 16-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds remaining. Sophomore quarterback Chase Beyer — who entered the game midway through the third quarter — was nearly perfect on the drive. He found senior Trond Grizzell three times and Tabaracci once to keep the offense in rhythm.
“We showed a lot of maturity as an offense on the final drive,” Montzingo said. “Our guys knew what the game plan was and what was expected of them, and they executed it perfectly.”
Despite the drive at the end, according to Montzingo the biggest play and drive of the game came at the end of the second quarter.
Tied 7-7, the Miners got the ball at its own 27 yard line with 1:50 remaining in the half. As has been the theme all season, Park City pushed the tempo on offense and drove to the Cedar Valley 40 yard line with just 6 seconds left. The Miners went for a hail mary but Grizzell drew a pass interference call with no time left on the clock, giving Park City one untimed down.
Rather than go for a touchdown from the 18 yard line, Montzingo put his trust in sophomore kicker Matt Demarco. Demarco drilled the 35-yard field goal to give the Miners a three-point lead, which proved to be the difference in the end.
“We know he has plenty of leg, and to be honest he had a great day and a half of consistency and kicking in practice that we wanted to give him a shot,” Montzingo said. “It’s a play that may not seem as big in the moment, but at the end of the game that was the difference for us winning. Matt stepping up in that moment is huge for us moving forward.”
As an expected top ten seed in the UHSAA Class 4A playoffs, Park City will have a first-round bye. That means the Miners will return to action at Dozier Field on Friday, Oct. 30. Kickoff and opponent are TBD.
“You can say we have some unfinished business after last season,” Montzingo said. “But we also know that to have that chance, we have to win each game before it. So for us, our focus is all about getting mentally and physically healthy so we’ll be ready when the time comes.”
