Tuesday afternoon’s game started out pretty well for the Park City High School boys’ soccer team.
Playing at Dozier Field, Cole Stanton found the back of the net early in the first half to put the Miners ahead of Timpanogos 1-0. However, Timpanogos quickly recovered, converting on a transition play to tie the score before halftime.
In the second half, the Miners appeared to retake the lead, but the goal was disallowed due to an offside penalty. Later, Timpanogos scored again and held off an ensuing Park City onslaught to earn a 2-1 victory.
Park City Coach Jake Jobe said the Miners got better as the game went on, but added that it wasn’t the best game his team could have played.
“We were not mentally with it today,” he said. “Our decision-making killed us. Hats off to Timpanogos, they played a good game, but we didn’t make good decisions, on offense especially.”
When the Miners did make good decisions, the Timpanogos goalkeeper was there to make a save and kill Park City’s momentum.
“They have a great goalie who comes out and snags a lot of balls out of the air,” Jobe said.
Defensively, Jobe said the Miners need to have better reactions. The deciding goal of the game was scored on a header after a cross into the box seemed to hang in the air for a long time before the Timpanogos player connected.
“On defense, we were ball-watching a little bit,” Jobe said. “That was the problem today.”
Jobe praised Park City goalie Charlie Urban’s game. Though the Miners allowed two goals, Urban had a number of timely saves to keep Park City close.
“Churb’s been great for us,” Jobe said. “Because of the way we play our defense, we need him to come out and we need him to make saves for us and he did that today. He’s been doing that for so long that it’s almost not surprising any more when he does that. He’s been so good and so consistent for us that you almost forget how good he is. He kept us in it today by making some great saves when they had some chances.”
Despite the loss, which dropped Park City’s overall record to 0-4-1, Jobe is optimistic the Miners can turn things around before Region 10 play starts on March 27.
“The positive is it’s still early in the season,” he said. “We’re inconsistent still. As we get more consistent, [good play] will happen the whole game.”
With a 10-day break before hosting Juan Diego on March 27, Park City will focus on improving its offensive play near the goal.
“We need to work on our passes into the final third and our finishing,” Jobe said. “We created openings and chances, but we’re not making that last pass to get the shot off. That’s something we’ll have to work on this week.”
Jobe expects the Juan Diego to have big Region 10 implications, as the Miners and Soaring Eagle are considered the favorites to win the region title.
“It’s huge,” he said. “I feel like we usually don’t play them until a little later, but we have them right off the bat. That’s one of those games that often decides the region. That’s how we’re going to look at it — this is a game that decides our region fate.”
The March 27 matchup between Park City and Juan Diego is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. at Dozier Field.