Over the past two weeks, the Park City Miners took down region rivals Stansbury and Mountain View, two of the top-7 teams in the state.
When the Miners returned to action on Friday night against Ben Lomond, the question was, how would the team respond to playing an inferior opponent? Would they be worn down from the past two games and not take the Scots seriously, or would the Miners take care of business as they should against a team that was 2-5 entering the game?
All it took was two series each by his offense and defense for Park City head coach Josh Montzingo to get his answer.
The Miners defense got back-to-back three-and-outs while junior running back Max Alford scored on their first two drives, as Park City eventually took down Ben Lomond 48-7.
“We’ve struggled in the past with not starting out as fast as we want to, so I was pleased to see us come out focused and take care of the job early,” Montzingo said. “Credit to [Ben Lomond] over there, they fought hard. … But we did what we had to. We came out early and never let our foot off the gas and that was very good to see.”
With the win, Park City sits at 6-2 overall and 5-0 in Region 10, needing just one more win to lock up the region championship for the second consecutive season.
After Alford scored on two runs of over 40 yards to open the game, the Miners used their array of weapons to keep piling on the score.
Junior Carson Pointer scored his first touchdown of the season on a 20-yard run later in the first quarter for a 20-0 lead.
With the running game intact, it was time for sophomore quarterback Chase Beyer and his weapons to get involved.
Beyer hit senior Trond Grizzell for 20 yards on third-and-13 for a first down, and then found him again on the next play, this time for a 48-yard touchdown. He also hooked up multiple times with junior Sam Alford as well, as the pairing of Sam and Grizzell proved to be tough to defend against.
After the Miners defense forced and recovered a fumble on the ensuing drive, senior Kirby Baynes electrified the crowd with a 55-yard touchdown run to make the score 34-0.
Ben Lomond got their only score of the game on the following drive, but the Miners answered right away. Junior Carson Tabaracci notched his first touchdown of the game, this one from 11 yards out to make the score 34-7 at the half.
“We have an array of weapons on offense. Sometimes it’s hard to make sure everyone gets their touches, but to be honest it’s a good problem to have,” Montzingo said. “Chase did a great job of spreading the ball around as we had five different guys score tonight. When we play like this, we are tough to handle.”
Despite the win, the Miners are focused on their next challenge.
“Just like we do every week, we celebrate tonight and then by the time we are done watching film tomorrow, it’s over with and we are looking forward to the next game,” Montzingo added. “I mean it when I say we take it one game at a time. … I think that’s part of our culture that’s been implanted by our former players that this group has carried on. We will be ready for Tooele.”
Park City returns to action on Thursday night for its final home game of the regular season when they host Tooele (2-6, 2-3 Region 10). Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.