The Park City High School boys’ lacrosse team is learning the highs and lows of the regular season.
After falling 11-3 to the Alta Hawks, the No. 1 team in the state Friday on the road, the Miners bounced back to thrash the Murray Spartans 16-0 Monday at home.
“We were up 8-0 before even the blink of an eye,” said assistant coach and defensive coordinator Andy Langendorf. “Games like that are a double-edged sword. It’s good in that it gives guys confidence and gives opportunity to execute the stuff we use in practice. The downside is, the play is a lot slower than what they will see against (the better teams).”
Monday’s top scorers were Carson Dutkanych with four goals and four assists and Colin Roberson with four goals. Chris Boland had three assists and Grant Beal was top ground-ball man of the afternoon with five. Ben Harries, who had been out for three weeks with a concussion, returned to play with four ground balls, one goal and one assist.
Park City’s next opponent will be rival Judge Memorial, which the Miners will face today in Salt Lake City. Varsity kicks off at 5:15 p.m.
Langendorf said the team, which lost 14 seniors from last year’s state runner-up squad, is looking to establish a consistent identity.
“Today was OK,” he said Monday. “The trouble with playing young teams like Murray is, players get undisciplined and that sort of breaks down the system that can lead to disaster when you play a well-disciplined team in the future.
“My perspective on everything is if you don’t progressively play tougher games, and tough competition the whole way, it’s so easy for players to slip into bad habits.”
The Miners’ are 2-2 in their last four games, including an impressive 3-2 road victory against Olympus two weeks ago.
Langendorf said that while this team is young, it is supremely talented and has the potential to make some noise come playoff time. Whether the players can translate that talent onto the field against some of the state’s better teams, he said, is another story.
“You’ve got to sink the ball against good teams,” he said. “The kids are getting a lot of opportunity, they’re playing hard. They’re getting instructed correctly. We’ve got a lot of good athletes on our team. We’re a team that plays with a lot of emotion, though. We’re not a team that can just rely on raw skill.”
While this team has a tendency to let games slip away at times, he said the coaching staff wants the players to play unafraid of any other team unaware of any distractions. Langendorf said he believes Park City plays better on the road rather than at home turf. When on the road, the Miners step onto the field focused on lacrosse and nothing else, he said.
“We have to learn to not get as affected by swings in the game,” he said. “Sometimes, heads go down and we’re not able to relocate the flow we need to be successful. That’s something that’s hard to coach.”
While the team is currently in the middle of the pack in the state standings, Langendorf said there’s no reason why the Miners can’t get hot and stay hot through the end of the season.
“This team can go really far if we have the right chemistry come together on the field,” he said. “At the end of the day we tell them, ‘You’re on the field. It’s your team.'”