For the second straight week, the Park City football team saw an opportunity to post a win slip right through its fingers.
The Miners led 10-9 at halftime on the road against Green Canyon, thanks to a touchdown run from senior Carson Tabaracci, but entered the fourth quarter down by nine after giving up 10 unanswered points in the third quarter. Tabaracci punched in another touchdown to close the gap to two, but the Miners ultimately fell 19-17.
Despite outgaining its opponent 411-315, Park City dropped its second consecutive one-possession decision and fell to 0-2 on the season. Now, the Miners have to figure out how to right the ship ahead of a four-and-a-half-hour trip south to St. George for Friday’s matchup against Pine View.
“It bothers me because I know we’re better than that, and I know we’re not accomplishing what we’re capable of,” Miners coach Josh Montzingo said. “It’s just nagging at me a little bit, I know we’re better than this. And I think we all do, we talked about it this week, and it’s a big focus going into this week.”
The Miners have also overhauled their offense due to injuries in their backfield. Montzingo said running backs Max Alford and Mason Grover are both out for the season after both left the season opener against Wasatch injured. For a team that likes to run the ball, it’s been a tough blow. Tabaracci, the No. 10 recruit in Utah on 247Sports, was moved to running back to fill in the hole while still playing outside linebacker on defense.
“We’ve missed a little bit trying to find our identity on offense with losing two fullbacks, and not just losing two fullbacks, but special players in both Max and Mason,” Montzingo said. “I think we found a little bit of that identity last week and kind of went a little tempo, a little hurry up and spread it out a little bit. I think we’re starting to find who we are and where we’re at, and I think this week will cement that with a good week of practice and we’ll have that down for this Friday night.
“We’re going to have to rally the troops now with what we’ve got and everybody knows that.”
Park City has only faced off with Pine View twice, but the two teams have gotten to know each other very well in a short period of time. The Miners knocked off the Panthers in the state semifinals in 2019 en route to an appearance in the state championship game. Pine View returned the favor last year with a 41-40 win early in the season due in part to a missed extra point for Park City.
The Panthers have been red hot to start the season, outscoring their opponents 73-27 through two weeks after a shutout win over Highland last week. They feature three players in 247Sports’ top 25 recruits in Utah for the class of 2022 in wide receiver Dominique McKenzie, Marcus McKenzie and BYU commit Peter Falaniko.
“I think we know each other pretty well, and we know it’s going to be a good fight, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Montzingo said. “For us, it’s just knowing that we’ve already played a couple of great teams that are also very talented and athletic and knowing we can play with them. We can do the same this week.”