With spring break looming, the Park City High School boys’ soccer team took care of business Friday afternoon in its home opener against American Leadership Academy, trouncing the Eagles 5-1 in a freezing wind.
“Everybody has places to go,” joked head coach Caro Caro afterward. “But I told them to take this game as a sort of practice, and that’s what they did. In the second half, I just told them to go have fun. We’re not looking to kill anybody. I much prefer to establish possession, rather than just rushing in to score.”
The Miners had five different goal scorers in the match. Senior Brian Park started off the barrage as he found his way onto a beautiful cross by sophomore Garrett Bullough and buried a diving header past the ALA keeper midway through the first half.
Bullough’s day wasn’t done.
The sophomore, who often sees more time with the junior-varsity squad, rifled a right-footed shot from the top of the 18-yard box to the upper-right corner of the net to put Park City ahead 2-0.
Senior midfielder Anthony Alcox, who scored a late penalty in the second half, was pleased to see many younger players make an impact. He recalled his days as an underclassman and what it meant to be able to show teammates and the coaching staff what he was capable of.
“I played varsity as a sophomore and you know right away that the game is just totally different going from JV to varsity,” Alcox said. “It overall makes them faster and better players.
“All of a sudden, playoffs come along and it’s a free game all over. You always want to give those kids a chance to play. Like, I came in and didn’t play much my entire sophomore year, and I played the whole playoffs. You just got to play your best and hope for the best. These kids have been playing well when they step in. They’ve been playing with a lot of heart, which is what we need.”
Caro concurred with his senior co-captain.
“I was able to give a lot of opportunities to kids who have not played much before,” he said. “It looks good. It’s sad that we don’t have many games that we can use for them to get better.”
After ALA had found its way onto the score sheet after Bullough’s rocket strike, senior midfielder Eric Laufer put the Miners back up two with an easy shot to the far post past a diving Eagles’ goalkeeper. Matt Stevens added a tally midway through the second half to make it 4-1.
Caro said while his team could have scored an abundance of goals against a team it outscored by a total of 12-1 in two Region 10 matches last year, he said that’s not what he is concerned about. He wants every player on the pitch to be ready to contribute.
“We’re better, we know that, and we if we beat them 2-0 or 20-0, it’s going to be the same thing,” he said.
Park City has now won three straight matches since its disheartening 1-0 loss to rival Wasatch in Heber on March 30.
With school out until April 18 for spring break, the Miners (8-3-1) will have two days to prepare for the return leg of the home-and-away series with Wasatch before meeting the 10-1 Wasps on April 20.
Caro said he wishes the timing was different, but it’s out of his hands and he knows his players must show up ready for the year’s biggest match.
“It is unfortunate,” he said. “We have to collect everybody on time to play a very important game. That’s going to be the case against Wasatch. We play the most important game of our season.”
Alcox said he hopes everyone on the team will be prepared for a shot at evening the season series.
“I expect our team to really focus for that one,” he said. “The Wasatch game is a getting-ready-for-playoffs type game. It’s all just a build-up to state. We’re trying to step up. And you should play every game like it is ‘that game’, and when we play Wasatch, we should be playing like we would in the state finals. You always want to play up.”