PCHS Miners lacrosse squeeks out a 10-9 home win against Brighton

Park City High School's boys J.V. lacrosse team warming up before Wednesday's Varsity game. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah —  The Park City High School Miners Varsity Boys Lacrosse Team had a home game victory on Wednesday night when they hosted the Brighton Bengals with a score of 10 – 9.

 “The boys really put their best effort forth today. It was a great win and indicative of what we’re capable of if we can maintain this upward trajectory,”  Coach Mike Persky told TownLift after the game.

Seniors Reese Smith and Ian Marsland have signed to play lacrosse in college in the Fall at Salisbury in Maryland and at Wooster in Ohio, respectively.

Senior Billy Alnwick and his sophomore brother Henry, had standout performances playing forward offense attack positions together, as well as junior goalie Max Gordon on defense as the goalie.

Persky has been the Miners coach for six years. “Today was just really a great team effort,” he continued. “We went down, I think five to one or five to two and then they buckled down and battled back on the defensive end and gave the offense a chance to help them win the game.”

The Miners’ season has had its ups and downs. They started off in the first four games, having four one-goal games, including an overtime loss. They were two and two, and then they traveled to Denver and played Cherry Creek High and Vallor Christian Academy. There, the boys had a bit of a wake-up call experiencing proficient opponents.

The fact that these High School athletes get to go to Colorado in the first place speaks volumes about their own big-picture proficiency, Persky said. When asked why more high school sports don’t normally compete in other states he explained, “They find better-matched competition in within Utah. And for us, we’re generally at the top of the pile, and so we go to Colorado to find the best competition we can that’s within a bus drive. The girls lacrosse Miners go to California.”

Now seven games into the 17 game season, Persky shared his mid-season vision and focus, “We have a lot of great kids, but we’re a relatively young team, we start two freshmen and we have a good core senior leadership. We’re working on playing together as one unit. I believe these boys are great kids and they’re all really working hard to become great lacrosse players. However, we’re not necessarily there just yet at this point in the season but we’re well on our way towards achieving that goal.” 

Coach is confident that the four team captains are Marsland, Smith, Senior Becker Ruzak and junior Wade Birch, will lead this team through a fun year. The year before last, the Park City won the High School Boys Lacrosse Utah State Championships and last year they came in second place in that tournament to Brighton making Wednesday’s win some sweet revenge.

They play next on Friday at home again against Corner Canyon and it should be a close matchup for the Miners as the Chargers have an impressive record on the field and an impressive reputation in the state. Face off is at 7:00 p.m. at Dozier Field.