It wasn’t to be this year for the Miners girls lacrosse squad, as they fell to their rival Olympus 9-6 Thursday morning in the state title game.
Park City jumped out to an early lead at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman and headed into the second quarter up 2-1. That lead quickly dissipated however, and the Miners went into the half down 6-3. Park City fought valiantly until the last whistle, scoring three late fourth-quarter goals. It wasn’t enough. Olympus poured in four of their own in the second half.
The Miners had supporting parents and a small student section at the stadium, which cleared out a bit as Park City failed to close the gap down the stretch. Some students withstood what were mildly chilly temperatures, showing their support with team slogans painted on their chests.
“Overall, it was a great season,” said Miners head coach Mikki Clayton. “We had some ups and downs throughout, but this game doesn’t define our season.”
“Hats off to Olympus. They played a phenomenal game. Their goalie had an amazing game, you know, we fought back, but unfortunately we just ran out of time.”
Clayton’s squad was chasing their third title in four years (lacrosse became an official UHSAA sport in 2021), having fallen to Olympus in the 2022 final and having defeated them in the 2023 final. Park City fell 13-8 at home to Olympus during the regular season on May 1. The Miners only other regular season loss came March 19 to California opponent Foothill.
Clayton thought Thursday’s game got away from the team because of their inability to win draws. Park City was also outshot 25-18 in the game.
“They were able to maintain possession, and we just didn’t have as many opportunities to score,” added Clayton. “Unfortunately, some opportunities we did have we couldn’t capitalize on again. Hats off to their goalie who played lights out. … I feel like if we’d had a little more time, we could have gotten it.”
Clayton was especially proud of her team’s fight, with players chasing after loose balls, scoring goals and cheering on their teammates from the bench until the final buzzer. Clayton was on the sidelines telling the team to ignore the gloomy score and battle until the very end. She sounded a touch emotional when discussing this year’s group, which she had coached since they were playing youth lacrosse. The Miners will graduate four seniors this year.
“They have been the heart and soul of this team,” said Clayton. “They’ve been so great with the younger players and teaching them our philosophies and our style of play and our Park City lacrosse, and I’m going to miss them so much.”
“We’ve got a young team (next year), though. We’ve got a lot of talent coming up the pipeline from the youth program, which is exciting. That’s one thing that we’re very fortunate with in Park City.”
One of Park City’s outgoing seniors is star midfielder Chuck Iacobelli, who scored one of the Miners three fourth quarter goals, her 43rd point of the season. Megan Magee scored two goals Thursday, Coco Crawford scored two as well, and Maddie McHenry also scored one. McHenry recorded Park City’s lone assist against Olympus. The Miners top points scorers this season were senior Sophie Neff, Magee and McHenry with 86, 72 and 63, respectively.
“I’m just thinking about how much fun I had in the last four years,” said Iacobelli. “I wasn’t a part of the Park City team my freshman year, but I got the opportunity to bring Waterford all the way to the championship here at this field too, so being able to be in the championship game all four years with two different teams is such a magical moment for me, and yeah, obviously wasn’t the outcome that I expected or wanted, but I knew my team fought out there, and that’s all I can ask for.”
Iacobelli will be playing next year for Cal Berkeley, and she said Park City best prepared her for the mental challenges of the game. She said she will start preparing for the college game shortly, where she is excited to level up her game against ACC competition. Iacobelli is confident next year’s Miners team can reclaim the state trophy.
“One hundred percent,” Iacobelli said emphatically. “Park City has such a good underclassmen program and feeder programs to the high school, and so without a doubt they’ll be back here in the championship game taking that championship title next year.”
