Miners’ rough soccer season continues
It’s not too often that the Park City High School girls’ soccer team suffers through an extended losing streak. So, now that this year’s Miner squad has lost its first three games, it’s almost uncharted territory.
It started with a 4-2 loss to Bountiful last Tuesday, then continued on Friday with a 2-0 loss at Skyline. On Monday, the Miners fell 4-1 to former Region 10 rival Wasatch in Heber.
Monday’s loss was not what Park City coach Chip Cook was expecting after a much better effort on Friday.
"Tuesday, I thought we could have given more effort then," she said. "We lost on Friday, but it was a totally different team. We played great. I was so happy with the result at the end of the game.
"Then we had this. This was very lackluster, very mediocre in terms of effort, connectivity and working hard."
It got off to a rough start as Wasatch scored two early goals. Then, Bailey Hodgson put one past the Wasps’ keeper to cut the deficit to 2-1. However, Wasatch would add a third goal before halftime.
In the second half, the Miners came out with more passion and energy, but it didn’t translate to goals. A couple of nice saves from the Wasps’ goalie and a couple of near misses kept the score 3-1 until another late goal from Wasatch made the final score 4-1.
Though Park City allowed four goals, many other scoring opportunities for Wasatch were snuffed out by the Miners’ defense, led by goalkeeper Hannah Hyatt.
"I thought the center backs held their own today and Hannah did a great job in net," Cook said.
Hyatt recently returned from a lacrosse trip to Europe and missed the first game of the season last Tuesday. But, Cook said, Hyatt was one of the few bright spots on Monday.
"She played great against Skyline and she played great this game," she said. "Ali [Kuennen] did a great job, but she’s a freshman and hasn’t played against 18-year-old seniors. It’s a big change. Hannah’s been there and knows how to handle it and does a really good job."
On Thursday, the Miners will be back in action against Olympus. Cook said she hopes Monday’s disappointing loss loss doesn’t carry over to the rest of the preseason.
"Hopefully we remember it, but don’t let it dictate the rest of the season," she said. "That’s why we schedule these games in the preseason they don’t count for anything. I just hope they don’t create bad habits."
Despite the tough start to the season, Cook added that she still thinks this team has the talent to turn things around.
"Every game is a test the team that wants it more oftentimes prevails," she said. "Hopefully we can find it in us to go out and get it. I know we have the capability, but every play, every minute, every second of the game, they have to be thinking the game instead of reacting. We were really slow to even react tonight."
Thursday’s game against Olympus is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. at the North 40 fields in Park City.
Local wrestler achieves All-American status at Iowa competition
Hanssen is a freshman at Wasatch High School and finished an outstanding freshman year season.
Support Local Journalism
Support Local Journalism
Readers around Park City and Summit County make the Park Record's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.
Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.
Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.