YOUR AD HERE »

Miners overpower Manti

by Jen Watkins, Of the Record staff

There were fireworks off the field as well as on when the Park City Miners overpowered the Manti Templars varsity football team 56-14 on Friday during Manti’s homecoming game.

Manti, which recently went from 2A to 3A and hadn’t lost a home game in two years, was down 35-0 to the Miners in the first quarter. halftime, the Templars were ready to see the Miners go home.

"The chain gang tried to start a fight with our coaches on the sideline," Park City coach Brandon Matich said.

Matich said the officials who mark the yards to determine when a team gets a first down were yelling at Park City coaches, called the players "classless" and told Matich to "bring it on."

"I tried to have them removed from our sidelines," he said, "but the (other) officials wouldn’t remove them."

By halftime, even the Park City television crew was asked to leave the press box, he said.

However, that didn’t stop Park City’s momentum. Running back Andrew Proctor and receivers Alex Molinaro, Brian Schettler, Heath Vincent and Parker Ruttan contributed tremendous blocking on the perimeter, he said.

"They not only catch the ball and are athletic, they all take blocking very personal," he said. "That group of kids right there is outstanding."

The Templars scored their first touchdown after a personal foul was called on one of the Park City players and a second foul was called on Matich.

"The officials chucked the flag on the lower back of one of our players," Matich said. "Then he picked it back up and did it again. I was upset by that. I thought that was a sign of aggression on our kids."

Running back coach Mikey Collins said he felt Matich was justified for being angry at the official and receiving a personal foul.

"I stand by Brandon no matter what happens," he said.

Collins said the arguing off the field didn’t slow the Miners down.

Proctor had a strong rushing performance with 96 yards for a touchdown and played the triple option to perfection, he said. Ruttan and defensive back Jackson Smith both had interceptions and kicker Kennan Ward didn’t miss a point. The Miners had 542 yards of offense total. They held the Templars to only one touchdown until the last few seconds of the game when the Templars scored a second touchdown on the Miners’ freshman players.

Collins said the Miners are now looking ahead to this week’s homecoming game against Carbon.

"Hopefully we can just get in there and do what we have to do," he said. "It will be important for us to go in and improve on things, and keep our momentum going. I have all the confidence in the world for our boys."


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.