High school girls lacrosse: Park City rolls past Mountain Ridge to continue domination of Utah teams

Park City has been crushing its Utah competition so far this season, and Thursday night was no different.

Going up against arguably one of the top teams in the state in Mountain Ridge, the Miners steamrolled their way to a 22-3 victory over the Sentinels.

Led by Coco Crawford and Natalia Szwajkun, who scored seven and five goals for the contest respectively, the Park City offense came out on fire and scored nine goals in the first quarter to quickly break the game open.

“Really proud of these girls. We came into this week knowing we’re going to play a really strong team. We challenged them, and they challenged each other this week to do everything we could to prepare,” said Park City head coach Adam Ghitelman.

“We just had an amazing week of practice, from everything from on the field to scouting report, preparation and executing on the field. We played fast and we played free, and that’s the way you want to play lacrosse.”

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Currently on a four-game win streak after narrowly losing twice to teams from California (the Miners also won a game against a team from there), Park City has outscored its opponents 67-15 during the stretch.

Ghitelman credits a lot of his team’s most recent success to the games that they had earlier in the season and their willingness to learn from each game, both bad and good.

“We had a chance to go and play in California, get some really great competition. I think that’s been a great piece of who we are now is facing a little bit of humility there and learning a little bit more about ourselves,” Ghitelman said.

“Sometimes losing leads to learning, and I think we’ve taken a lot of what we learned in California and added it to what we’re doing right now in the field. These girls are just having fun and they’re playing hard, and good things happen.”

The defense has also been elite for Park City as of late, allowing players on the offensive side to rack up the goals and assists, reliving pressure throughout the game.

“Our defense is the backbone of this team,” Ghitelman said. “Championship teams are built on their defense, and we can certainly score goals, too.

“When you have a defense that gives you so much confidence, you can play freer. You can be more creative, and I think that allows our whole team to play faster. Credit to the whole crew.”

Ghitelman knows that his team can’t take any team lightly, and it all starts with the preparation on the practice field during the week.

“I think a lot of these girls play in a 0-0 mindset world,” he said. “We just have always talked about next play mentality, and our practice field is where the iron sharpens the iron, where these girls compete against each other and bring the best out of each other.”