Prep football: Miners heartbroken by loss in semi

Click photo to enlarge

Park City's Dillon Olsen gets knocked out of bounds by Hurricane's Alphonso Thompson, center, and Anderson Rich during the 3A semifinal football game between Park City and Hurricane at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

• «
• 1
• 2
• »

Brandon Matich found his voice cracking. Then he sniffed, with tears threatening to stream down his face.

As the football coach at Park City, Matich is expected to never let his emotions to get the best of him.

But on last Friday afternoon, he had no choice. The Miners had just lost a hard-fought, 24-19 decision to Hurricane in the Class 3A semifinals. Losing a game they felt could have been won left Matich, as well as his players, inconsolable.

"These are the best group of seniors that I've ever been around," Matich said. "We had our chances to capitalize on opportunities, but we didn't get it done."

What Park City accomplished is significant. The Miners advanced to the final four. They firmly established themselves as a title favorite and gave Hurricane all it wanted in the process at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Besides that, the Miners had two of the best players in the state this season. Dylan Chynoweth ran for 2,258 yards this season and found the end zone 34 times. Quarterback Erik Walker ran for almost 1,500 yards and scored 19 touchdowns. They carried the program, were good students in the classroom and played well in close games.

The two were all but unstoppable this season, able to run over, around and through their opponents.

"They are the two best players that I've coached," Matich said. "They are also great, great kids. I will be very disappointed if they both don't make the all-state first team. They've earned it and in my opinion they are two of the best players in the state."

Park City had every chance to quit against Hurricane. The Miners, after getting out to a 12-0 lead, trailed going into halftime and trailed for most of the second half. Down 21-12, however, they rallied, scoring a touchdown to pull within 21-19, and after surrendering a field goal, had the ball with the chance to rally for the win.

The Miners had two chances, in fact, and advanced all the way to midfield on the second time around. However, they threw an interception, ending the game, along with what was a dream season.

"We want the younger kids to see this and see the success that the seniors have achieved," Matich said. "We hope that we can have a good offseason and we hope that the kids respond to offseason workouts. We have a good team, and we have good players in the underclass. We want to have a lot of success in the future."

tjones@sltrib.com