It’s no secret that Park City has its work cut out for itself in the second round of the playoffs.
The No. 16 Miners (8-2) face top-seeded Lehi on the road on Friday following a 35-14 win over Timpanogos at home. The Pioneers are undefeated and won the state title last season. But the Miners are looking forward to measuring themselves up against the best competition in Class 5A.
“Once you get into the playoffs, everybody’s a good team,” Park City coach Josh Montzingo said. “It’s going to be a fun opportunity to keep playing, and we’re happy we’re still going.”
Lehi can make a case for itself as the best team in the state, regardless of classification. The Pioneers knocked off Corner Canyon, Class 6A’s top seed, and defeated Timpview, the second seed in Class 5A, in the regular season. Lehi has outscored opponents 448-76 heading into Friday’s tilt.
The two don’t share a common opponent this year, but the closest comparable is arguably Lehi’s matchup against No. 11 Orem, which the Pioneers won 55-21. The best opponent Park City has faced by RPI is No. 5 Brighton, and the Miners lost 47-33 to the Bengals. Montzingo compared this week’s matchup to when Park City faced Sky View in the quarterfinals in 2018 and upset the then-undefeated Bobcats 15-14.
“We were able to go up there, beat a team that hadn’t lost in, like, two years, and that was pretty magical,” Montzingo said. “Nobody, I think, outside of ourselves thought it was even a possibility. But there again, people made plays, we’re able to hang around in a game, keep it close, had to pull it out at the very end. It’s never easy, right?”
It’s difficult to figure out what will be harder on the Miners: scoring on a Lehi defense that has rarely allowed opponents to put points on the board, or finding a way to stop a balanced Pioneers attack that has scored at will. Even though Park City has allowed just 15 points per game this season, the Miners will likely be tested in ways they haven’t all season.
“It’s going to be stressful any way you slice it,” Montzingo said. “But it’s a great challenge, and life is always about challenges and kind of seeing how you can rise to that and what you can do and measure yourself.”
Senior offensive lineman Sean Burnette and the rest of the offensive line will be tasked with opening up running lanes for running back Mason Grover while keeping quarterback Chase Beyer upright. It won’t be easy, but Burnette pointed out that there’s been a feeling of nervous excitement about the opportunity to square off against the Pioneers.
“If we just execute and play our best game that we’ve played so far, I think we’ll have a good chance,” he said. “We just have to put ourselves in positions to make plays. I’m nervous, but it’s like an excited type of nervous because I feel like we can really do something.”
Over the course of the season, Burnette has seen the offensive line gel and form the backbone of a valuable rushing attack for the Miners this season.
“I feel like we’ve just really come together and actually become a solid running team, and nobody really thought that’s what we’d be at the beginning of the year,” Burnette said. “(I’m) actually excited to have a really good (defensive) line to go up against and see how the run game matches up.”
But regardless of the seeding, expectations and what the scoreboard might say at the end of the fourth quarter on Friday, Park City is laying it all on the line for one more week together.
“You never know when it could be our last, so we just have to go as hard as we can and have the best week that we’ve had and just have fun with everybody,” senior Jack Stouffer said. “Playoffs is playoffs. You’ve got to go as hard as you can and have as much fun as you can. No matter the outcome, I’m still going to be grateful for this team and for the season I’ve had so far.”