Meticulous. That’s what the Juan Diego Catholic High School football team is, and the Park City Miners learned that firsthand on a frigid, snowy Friday night at Dozier Field.
The Soaring Eagle’s style of continuing to punch and punch and punch until the clock reads zero was the story in the visitors’ 44-9 victory over Park City.
“They’re patient, they’re opportunistic, and that’s what makes them a great team,” said Park City head coach Kai Smalley.
“Those are the kind of things you want to emulate from a team like that. You may not like Juan Diego because they’re in the region, but you still have to figure out a way to beat them.”
The Miners did, “exactly what we couldn’t afford to do,” in Smalley’s words, in fumbling the opening kickoff deep in Park City territory. Juan Diego running back Cayden Sanchez scored on the Soaring Eagle’s first offensive play of the game following the fumble, triggering the ground assault that would continue throughout the evening.
“We let them beat us right off the bat,” Smalley said. “We’ve got to stay on top of it. We can’t start with a turnover.”
After Juan Diego took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, Park City was able to march down the field, thanks in large part to a long run broken off by senior Chad Smith, who ran for a total of 81 yards on 10 carries on the night. Miners’ kicker Keenan Ward nailed a 35-yard field goal to make it a one possession game.
But the Soaring Eagle chipped away with its slew of running backs and timely play-action pass calls.
By halftime, Juan Diego led 31-3.
“We were letting them chunk away at us,” Smalley said. “We had them dead in our sights a few times in the backfield all credit to their running backs: They just pumped their legs and rolled over tackles and we act like we’ve never seen somebody do that before. That’s been the exact opposite of the last couple weeks where we’ve been rallying to the ball.”
In the third quarter, senior quarterback Heath Vincent added Park City’s lone touchdown of the game with a one-yard quarterback dive after a sustained drive by the Miners.
Smalley said one of the bright spots of the evening was the Park City offensive line, which has been dealing with injuries and inconsistency throughout the season.
He noted that Vincent had plenty of time in the pocket, but the Miners were unable to attack the Juan Diego soft zone with quick passes.
“I think that’s on us as coaches. We didn’t do a good enough job of finding ways to get receivers open,” Smalley said.
“We were waiting and letting things develop instead of just picking them where they were soft. That’s going to be something we have to clean up as coaches. Our line blocked great. But we’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys in the right places.”
Senior linebacker Paul Flake had an outstanding game defensively Friday, totaling 18 tackles, two sacks and two forced fumbles.
The Miners (2-6 overall, 2-1 in Region 10) must move forward and focus on welcoming an old foe Friday at Dozier Field. The Judge Memorial Bulldogs are back in Region 10 this year and are 6-2 this season, 3-0 in region play.
Like most teams Park City has faced this year, the Bulldogs are a run-first team, featuring three players who each have over 500 yards rushing this year in Christian Weidle, Miles Ellis and Jack Barnett.
“They’re gonna do the same thing,” Smalley said. “They’re gonna run the ball and run the option and we’ve just got to be able to come out and stop it. We can’t have little mistakes. We’ve got to make sure we wrap the ball up.
“I have faith our kids can come out and hang with Judge all night.”
Friday night will also be senior night for the class of 2012. Smalley said he expects the intensity to be at a different level.
“Especially on their last night on their home field,” he said. “I think if we come out and have a great week of practice, I don’t see why we shouldn’t (win). We’ve got to win this one.”