The barrage on the opposing goal started early on Friday afternoon at Dozier Field for the Park City High School boys’ soccer team.
Hosting Union, the Miners scored early and often, building up a 7-0 halftime lead in a game that ended with an 8-0 final score.
Gunnar Stray-Gundersen scored three goals in the first half to lead Park City. Alber Cornejo, Matt Gregory, Camden Woll and Peter Bermant scored the other four first-half goals for the Miners.
After intermission, the teams played nearly 20 scoreless minutes before Wade Quilter found the back of the net to give the Miners an eight-goal advantage, which was enough to end the game early.
The Miners started the season slowly on the offensive end, failing to score more than one goal in a game until their seventh game of the year. In two games against Union, however, Park City has scored 14 goals.
Park City Assistant Coach Matthew Gilmour, filling in for Head Coach Jake Jobe on Friday, said he expected the Miners to take care of business in a must-win game against the Cougars. He said the Miners’ intensity was much higher than it has been for some games this season, which is necessary in a tough region game.
“It was a good performance,” he said. “Against a team like Union, I don’t expect anything less.”
Playing with a formation that features four defensive players, Gilmour said the team’s focus was to involve the outside two more often.
“We involved the wing backs a lot more in this game, especially,” he said. “One of our wing backs, Camden, even managed to get a goal. We’re trying to force more of our offense to come from the defense moving forward.”
Park City senior wing back Mitch Martino, playing in his final regular-season home game at Dozier Field, said that’s something he and the other outside backs have been working on in practice.
“Jobe’s definitely been trying to emphasize us getting our outside backs involved,” he said. “We want to play the wings a lot more. We’re trying to get it out wide because we’re a very tall team, so crossing it into the box is definitely playing to one of our strengths.”
Even while focusing on getting more offense from the defenders, Gilmour said he was pleased with the way the entire team managed to keep the Cougars from finding the back of the net.
“Defensively, we played very well today,” he said. “We were very solid. I couldn’t be happier.”
Senior goalkeeper Wyatt Burgess replaced Charlie Urban, the team’s starting keeper, on Friday. Gilmour said Burgess had a great outing.
“He played well,” he said. “I know he had a little bit of an injury during warm-ups, but he was terrific. He was getting the crowd going, so that was good.”
Martino said some of the Miners’ dominance on Friday afternoon could be credited to him and the rest of the seniors wanting to end their Dozier Field careers on a high note.
“It was great,” he said. “It was nice to finish out our play on Dozier with a good game. Some of us have been playing on this field for all of high school, so it’s kind of a sentimental last game. It was nice to end it with an 8-0 win.”
Park City (4-6-1 overall, 4-2 in Region 10) had to quickly shift its attention to the future after Friday’s win. On Tuesday night, after this issue went to press, the Miners were scheduled to play Juan Diego, Region 10’s top team.
The playoff implications for Tuesday’s game weren’t lost on Martino, who noted that the Miners are in a battle with Uintah for the No. 2 seed in Region 10.
“We have a massive game against Juan Diego next,” he said. “We need a win or a tie to get the second seed, which would mean we get a home playoff game. If we get the third seed, it will be a rough route.”
Gilmour said the Miners would need to bring the same level of energy to the Juan Diego game.
“I told the boys before [Friday’s] game that we had to keep our intensity up the whole game,” he said. “With Juan Diego coming up, we need to play just as good as we were playing today so we can be a real threat and get that second seed.”
“It’s really mental for us,” Martino added. “Sometimes we don’t come out awake in the first 10 minutes. We really need to start strong and just keep it going.”
Park City’s final two games are scheduled for April 24 at Morgan and April 27 at Wasatch.