Miners eek out narrow Halloween win in 2nd round football playoffs at Dozier Field

The team behind the team at the Park City playoff home game on Halloween lead by Head Coach Josh Montzingo. Photo: Kristina Biglow

PARK CITY, Utah — After a bye in the first round, the varsity boys Park City High School Miners won their second round 4A playoff game against the Sky View Bobcats from Northern Utah, at home, with a final score of 20 – 23 and a thrilling last minute and a half which had the big crowd on their feet.

“These talented, dedicated student-athletes have worked hard to be able to continue into the playoffs,” Park City High School Assistant Principal Angela Erickson told TownLift halfway through the game.” We highly value our teams here, and so the parents, the faculty, the classmates, and the community-at-large are rooting for them and are proud of them.”

Senior wide receiver Eli Warner gets the Miners a first down in this video.

16 minutes after the start of the game wherein the Miners had already recovered a fumble, Brogan Price caught a touchdown pass thrown from senior quarterback Josh Hofer.

When the Miners were up 10 – 0, Tanner Pidwell kicked a 38 yard field goal held in place by senior Parker Jones. 

When it was 20 – 7 and after some successful field goals, Hofer connected to senior Charlie Cusimano in the air for a 42 yard, City touchdown. 

Eli Warner gets another first down in this next video below.

The Miners put the only points on the board in the third quarter and it was 23 – 7 going into the fourth.

Pidwell moved the game forward again with a 65 yard punt.

Cuzimano had a great game. Senior Alex Brannigan experienced a temporary injury, was treated on the sidelines by Park City’s Athletic Trainer Chris Antinori, then returned to the field after missing only a couple plays.

Miners had more penalties than the Bobcats did overall in this game.

The Cheer Squad was helping the team all along the way.

The seniors on the Dance Team which performed at Halftime are listed below in this video.

Senior players on Dozier Field playing in their last home game included but were not limited to Owen Osario, Wyatt Knapp, and  Niko Morgan, contributing invaluably to the playoff ‘W’.

Hofer to Warner again this time in a handoff near the end of the fourth quarter got a the Miners another important first down.

Their opponents rallied in the last quarter of what would end up being their last of this season, with two touchdowns but it just wasn’t enough to know the Miners out of the State brackets.

The game came to an end with the downed knee of the Park City Team as they had possession and points and under 40 seconds left on the scoreboard. 

Learn more about the Miners’ march to the post season here.

On Friday, The eighth ranked Miners play in the quarterfinals against number one ranked Ridgeline High at their school located north of Ogden, south of Logan, kickoff is at 6:00 p.m. Ridgeline beat their second round playoff opponent eliminating East High on Friday with a dominating performance and a final score of 73 – 14. The winning team from that game gets to play in the penultimate State semifinals and ultimately the title game, both being held at the University of Utah Ute’s Rice Eccles Stadium. 

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