Big defensive plays seal Miners' victory

PARK CITY – When he broke through the offensive line on a play late in the third quarter, Jake Adams at once realized he was in the perfect position to make just the sort of big play Park City desperately needed.

Adams saw the ball sailing toward him and saw an open lane in front of him. The rest was simple.

"I saw the ball, tipped it to myself, caught it and I ran as fast as I could," the senior lineman said.

When he finally came to a stop, Adams was in the end zone celebrating an interception return for a touchdown. It was the first of two such defensive scoring plays in the second half for the Miners and helped lift Park City to a 28-21 victory over archrival Wasatch on Friday night.

For the Miners, it marked an eighth straight win in the lengthy rivalry and also helped them clinch a third consecutive Region 10 title.

Adams' 56-yard interception return helped Park City take a 21-14 lead with 1:34 remaining in the third quarter after the Wasps had rallied to tie the game earlier in the second half.

Cody Parker capped off a nine play 71 yard drive by Wasatch to open the half with a 4 yard touchdown run that made it 14-14 at the 8:49 mark of the third quarter.

But a big third down sack of Tyler Purdy by Jordan Ruda and John Finch forced the Wasps to turn the ball over on downs on their next series. Then came Adams interception after that. Finally, two series later, John Schettler got into the act by returning another interception by Purdy 36 yards to give Park City a 28-14 lead with 6:08 remaining.

The Wasps did manage to strike one more time – this time on a 17-yard pass from Purdy to Alex Probst with 2:12 left – but they never fully recovered from those costly turnovers.

"Our defense was in the right places at the right time," Miners coach Kai Smalley said. "They were getting in their coverages and just doing their job."

They weren't the only ones.

Senior running back Blake Thorne did a good job of adding a running element to Park City's pass-happy offense.

e-mail: jcoon@desnews.com