After enjoying a bye week, Park City is gearing up for another postseason run, which begins on Friday with a home game against Timpanogos.
Park City enters the postseason as the No. 16 seed following a 7-2 regular season. The Miners are coming off a 28-15 win in their last game against Skyline on Oct. 7, while No. 17 Timpanogos is 7-3 following a 71-43 loss to Stansbury last week.
“New season, everybody’s 0-0 again, right back to even,” Park City coach Josh Montzingo said on Monday. “It’s a new challenge, and we’re excited to have another opportunity to keep playing.”
Last year, the Miners were the 20th seed and knocked off Skyline on the road in the opening round before falling to Bountiful the following week. This year, they’re happy to stay home for their first playoff game. Park City is 5-0 at home this year, so having home-field advantage is a big deal.
“Another home game always is awesome,” senior Anthony Hernandez said. “It gives us another chance to protect the turf. I think we’re all really excited, especially to have our fans out here. Everybody, the whole community, gets to come and support us. So, we’re excited for that, and it’s going to be fun because it’s a playoff game.”
Having a week off between the regular season and the playoffs has also given Park City a chance to rest and recuperate heading into Friday. But with last week in the rear-view mirror, it’s back to business for the Miners.
“Physically, it was great for us,” Montzingo said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that have gotten some healing, gotten themselves rested up a little bit. I think the rust is the one thing you shake off today, and we found that a little bit. But I think we’ll be great. I think physically it’ll be a good thing for us.”
Friday’s game will feature a strength-versus-strength matchup between Park City’s defense and Timpanogos’ offense. The Timberwolves have scored 38.4 points per game this year, while the Miners have yielded just 15.1 per game. Park City has also been especially stingy at home this year.
“We’re going to have to definitely be sound,” Montzingo said. “We can’t make a lot of assignment mistakes, and we’re going to have to find a way to get to that quarterback, but it’s hard. He gets the ball out quick, he’s accurate, he’s on time and they have a good scheme. They’re well-coached, so we’re going to have our hands full. It’s going to be fun.”
Timpanogos has thrown the ball 433 times this year, and quarterback Chase Riggs has hit the 300-yard mark in four games. Riggs has thrown 18 touchdown passes to four interceptions as well. Montzingo will turn to his experienced defense, especially in the secondary, to bottle up the Timberwolves as much as possible.
“Our secondary is obviously going to have their hands full,” Montzingo said. “We’ve got those guys back there with both (Carson) Navarro and (Carson) Baynes. We’ve got our two corners out there with (Mason) Christensen and Jack (Stouffer). They’re going to have their hands full with all that passing.”
On the offensive side of the ball for Park City, the Miners are facing a Timpanogos unit that has given up nearly 27 points per game. The Timberwolves allowed 49 points and 45 points in losses to Payson and Cedar Valley, respectively, earlier in the season. Payson and Cedar Valley aren’t much higher than Park City in RPI, sitting in 12th and 13th, respectively.
Park City quarterback Chase Beyer doesn’t feel any extra pressure from potentially having to outscore Timpanogos’ offense.
“For us, our goal is to score every drive, and it never changes with the opponent,” Beyer said. “For us, it’s pretty much score every time we get on the field, give our defense a break and do what we can to obviously win the game, right?”
“If we hold onto the ball and we put it away, we’ve got playmakers just as much – we can make a lot of plays,” Montzingo added.
Beyer has been Park City’s starting quarterback for its last two playoff runs, and he’s drawing on that experience now that he’s a senior.
“I would say the biggest thing is probably focus throughout the week,” he said. “Realistically, if you don’t win, you go home. So, that’s kind of what you come to practice for, and it’s treat every day like it’s your last. We do that, and things go well throughout the week, typically have a very good outcome Friday night.”
Park City heads into Friday’s game with some positive momentum, a little rest and plenty to play for. There are no guarantees the Miners will still be playing football next week. Seniors like Hernandez and Beyer don’t have to be told that twice.
“For me, I’m coming in with that mentality that it’s either us or them,” Hernandez said. “I’m going to do my best for all these guys, just so that we can keep going. Because I don’t want the season to end after this game, and we’re just all going to do our best. We’re really going to protect the home turf, and that’s been a staple since the beginning of the season.”