Park City’s dominance of in-state teams this season isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
Megan Magee scored seven goals, while Hadley Mulholland and Coco Crawford each tallied hat tricks of their own, as the visiting Miners rolled past Brighton 18-6 on a chilly Wednesday night in Cottonwood Heights.
With the win, Park City improved to 7-1 on the season and 5-0 against Utah teams, with every in-state victory coming by at least 12 goals.
“It’s our pre, during and postgame tools. We started off in the fall, we were ripping. So I think it’s our prep from the fall, carrying over. We’re just putting it together,” said Park City coach Mikki Clayton. “We’re being super intentional with what we focus on in the games. And then postgame, we’re recovering well mentally and physically.”
The game was tight early, but Park City pulled away with a big second quarter, outscoring the Bengals 5-1 for the 8-2 halftime lead. It tacked on 10 more goals in the second half for another comfortable win.
“We do the little things down right, and then everything translates on game day. As long as we get the little things down, the big things are gonna take care of themselves,” said Clayton.
Magee’s seven goals increased her team-lead to 19 goals this season.
Mulholland’s draw controls, particularly in the first half, were a big key to Park City seizing the early momentum. She fed off the momentum too, scoring three of her team’s first four goals.
“She’s a spark off the bench, something that we very much need, and something that’s strategic. She could easily start on the team, but it’s a way for us to get a little bit more momentum once we see what’s going on in the game,” said Clayton.
While Mulholland was the early spark offensively, Magee took over from there. She scored twice in the first half, and then four more times in the third quarter as the lead swelled to 13-5 after three.
Park City’s attack is averaging 15.4 goals per game, so Wednesday’s production was pretty much par for the course. So was the production at the end of the field, with the Miners’ defensive athleticism causing troubles all game.
“I think our main strength is beating teams with our athleticism, and then when we combine our mind, body and our skill — it’s all a system. It’s not one or the other, it’s how you bring them all together. I think we do that really well. These girls are hungry,” said Clayton.
Park City’s lone loss of the season came last week in California as it lost to Foothill out of Santa Ana 19-9. The Knights are ranked fourth in the nation according to Maxpreps.
The Miners won their other two games in California that trip, beating Huntington Beach 15-1 and then JSerra Catholic 13-9.
For Clayton, the wins and losses are all about trying to improve each day with the end goal of winning the 5A state championship after coming up short to Olympus a year ago.
“We think about that every day, but we don’t let that affect our day to day. I think it’s a fresh slate every single quarter we play. Mindset is everything,” said Clayton.
In the loss, Sophie Nielsen scored five goals for the Bengals.