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PCHS soccer squad drops Region 10 opener

The Park City High School boys’ soccer team saw its Region 10 season get off to a rough start on Friday afternoon at Dozier Field.

Taking on rival Juan Diego, the Miners’ offense couldn’t find the back of the net in what became a tough 3-0 loss.

After battling to a draw through the first 30 minutes of play, the Miners conceded a penalty-kick goal to the Soaring Eagle with less than 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

Following intermission, Juan Diego scored with 28 minutes remaining in the game and then added a third goal with 11 minutes left to provide all the cushion it would need to pick up a big victory.

A frustrated Park City squad that fell to 0-5-1 on the season with the loss gathered at midfield after the game. Coach Jake Jobe said his players need to keep their heads up to prevent this season from spiraling out of control.

"You’ve just got to try to stay positive," he said. "I told them to be angry for an hour and then think about how they can get better. Dwelling on it doesn’t make you better."

With several Region 10 games in the next few weeks, Jobe said it’s important to get back to the right mental state quickly.

"We play Uintah on Tuesday (after this issue of The Park Record went to press)," he said. "So it’s a quick turnaround. Uintah’s had some great results and they’re a good team this year."

Jobe said the Miners need to go back to the basics to ensure that they can take care of business against other Region 10 foes.

"We need to re-evaluate why we’re here, re-apply ourselves and focus on the little things," he said. "You can’t do the big things well — you can’t score goals, you can’t defend as a team — until you do the little things well. We’re not doing the little things well right now."

He added that Friday’s game featured some new problems for the Miners.

"To be honest, we struggled today in the back and in possession," he said. "If you don’t have the ball, you’re going to have a hard time scoring. In the other games, we’ve had possession, but we’ve just struggled in that final third [offensively]. Today, the times we got the ball up there, we were pretty dangerous. The problem was we didn’t get it up there enough, so it was kind of the opposite problem of what we had last week. That’s something we’ll keep working on."

The Miners had offensive chances on Friday, but they couldn’t capitalize, sending a couple shots over the crossbar and watching the Juan Diego goalkeeper make some nice saves. Jobe said Park City needs to keep working at creating those dangerous opportunities.

"I thought [the offense] was more dangerous than it was last game," he said. "There just wasn’t that much of that danger. Wade [Quilter] had a great chance at the end and Gunnar [Stray-Gundersen] had a great cross that we should have finished. We’ll keep tweaking it a little bit — I have some ideas for next week for things to change up with our formation to make it a little more dangerous."

At the beginning of the season, Jobe said the Miners had several players who weren’t natural forwards playing the forward position. He thinks those players have improved over the course of the year.

"A few of them have made huge strides," he said. "Cole Stanton, he plays center back for club and we’ve got him playing up front. If you watch him, his movement has improved so much. Then we’ve got some young guys, some freshmen, who are playing really hard. The game is fast, so they’re still getting used to the high-school level as far as speed."

Going into Tuesday’s game at Uintah, Jobe said the Miners need to believe they are improving and keep a winning mindset.

"There are still positives," he said. "We’re still a good team, we’re just not showing it on the field. That’s so cliché, but I think we legitimately feel that still."

Park City’s next home game is scheduled for Monday, April 6, when the Miners host Morgan at 3:30 p.m. at Dozier Field.


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