The Park City’s boys lacrosse team needed overtime to escape a first-round upset bid from No. 15 Lone Peak on Tuesday, but no overtime heroics were necessary Friday against No. 7 Mountain Ridge.
The Miners outscored Mountain Ridge 7-1 in the second and third quarters to move on to the Division A state semifinals with a 13-8 victory. No. 2 Park City will travel to West Jordan on Wednesday to face 14th-seeded Brighton. The Miners defeated Brighton 18-7 earlier in the season.
“I think I just let the boys play,” Park City coach Michael Persky said. “We’ve got some great senior leaders: Tyler (Vendetti) and Connor (Monson) and our junior defensive captain Keller (Hopkins). You know, I just let them play. These guys make good decisions on the field, and I have a tremendous amount of confidence in them.”
Mountain Ridge jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a goal just under two minutes into the contest. Park City created plenty of chances but couldn’t capitalize until sophomore Chase Beyer put the Miners on the board five and a half minutes into the first quarter.
The Sentinels regained the lead with a goal a couple minutes later, but Park City answered with two goals in the last minute and a half of the first quarter to take a 3-2 lead.
Though the Sentinels offense got off to a strong start, Miners goalie Bo Hathorne then came up with several key saves. He and the Park City defense kept Mountain Ridge off the scoreboard again until midway through the third quarter.
“I thought that he let a couple soft ones in early, but he recovered and tightened himself up and did a really great job of getting his focus back,” Persky said.
On the other side of the field, the Miners’ offense peppered the Mountain Ridge goal with shots. Vendetti had a hat trick in the second quarter, and Beyer chipped in with another goal to give the Miners a 7-2 lead at halftime.
After a procedure penalty off the opening draw of the second half, Park City midfielder Cooper Mueller received a pass and took off downfield before scoring the Miners’ seventh unanswered goal. Beyer and Vendetti scored again to give Park City a 10-3 advantage heading into the final period.
The Miners took their foot off the gas in the final quarter after two goals from senior Ryan Whitworth to extend the lead to nine. Mountain Ridge took advantage and found the back of the net five times in the fourth quarter, including four unanswered goals. However, after Park City gained possession of the ball with a couple minutes to go, the Miners played keep away to run out the clock.
Persky credited senior defender Jake Podmilsak for his efforts throughout the game.
“I think he just did a nice job playing on the defensive end of the field,” he said. “A lot of key ground balls, had some nice clears and helped and helped out communicating with the back side.”
Earlier in the day, Park City’s top-seeded girls lacrosse team took on No. 8 Farmington and sent the Phoenix home with a 27-0 thrashing. The girls squad will face No. 4 Brighton at Bingham High School.