DRAPER — Earlier this season, Park City's Aleks Roising wowed everyone by unspooling an incredible left-footed shot past Judge's keeper.
"Aleks has a cannon of a left foot. He got one off against Judge, and we were waiting for him to do it again," said Park City coach Mike Guetschow.
Roising picked the perfect time to show off his left-foot prowess again.
His 60th minute goal Saturday helped Park City edge Morgan 2-1 to claim the 3A championship at Juan Diego High School.
"It feels good," said Guetschow. "It's been a great group to work with these guys."
The victory capped an impressive unbeaten season for Park City (17-0-3), but one that came with a lot of close calls. The Miners needed overtime to advance past the quarterfinals and a shootout in the semifinals, so it's only fitting the Miners took their supporters on one last emotional roller-coaster in the championship.
The drama began in the fifth minute as an unmarked Roising ran onto a centering pass from Nik Tucker and shanked it well over the crossbar. Park City enjoyed several other quality scoring chances in the first half, but Morgan keeper Justin Archibald was stoning the Miners just as he'd done in the Trojans' three previous playoff games.
Morgan nearly ended the scoring drought in the 46th minute when Nick Burton's 18-yard shot glanced off the side of a Park City defender and into the post. On the ensuing corner kick, Park City keeper Rock Christeson did an excellent job of coming off his line and punching the ball out of harm's way.
That play was similar to countless more like it in which Christeson either punched away or grabbed a dangerous cross in the box.
"Rock was outstanding coming out to the ball and not letting them get to a shot," said Guetschow.
Park City's Roising finally snapped the 0-0 stalemate in the 62nd minute following a sequence in which Morgan had several opportunities to clear the ball out of danger.
Six minutes after Roising's goal, Park City scored again as Turner tracked down a long ball from Emmett Moffett and buried the breakaway goal. The entire contingent of Morgan fans, players and coaches was furious that the linesman didn't call Turner offsides.
After a yellow card eventually forced Morgan coach Josh Burton to calm down, the ref did his best to make up for the apparent blunder.
In the 70th minute, the ref awarded Morgan a penalty kick after Jacob Bagley was tackled near the edge of the box. David Batchelor buried the penalty kick to cut the deficit to 2-1 with 10 minutes to play.
The Trojans had Park City on their heels for those final 10 minutes, and nearly squeaked a pair of shots past Christeson. In the 74th minute Park City defender Chad Agy cleared a Morgan shot off the goal line, and then in the 79th minute Bagley banged a free kick off the post.
"My boys played with more heart than I thought they could," said Burton. "Especially down 2-0."
The Region 11 co-champion Trojans graduate only three seniors, so they should be back in contention again next year.
In the 1A Region 17 boys soccer tournament Saturday:
WEST RIDGE ACADEMY 3, SALT LAKE LUTHERAN 1: Parker England, Tommy Downs and Brett Goodman each knocked in goals for the Fighting Eagles as they picked up third place in the region tournament in downing the Lynx.
CHRISTIAN HERITAGE 1, LAYTON CHRISTIAN 0: The Crusaders' Codie Thompson headed in a free kick to score the only goal of the game and give the Eagles their first region loss and the Crusaders the Region 17 tournament title. Shaun Sandman picked up the shutout to help out Christian Heritage.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com