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Show Miners dump North Sevier, begin league play Friday "; -"; -5 by David Hampshire Surviving a shaky start, the Park City Miners scored five straight touchdowns in the second and third quarters quar-ters to trap the North Sevier Wolves 33-12 Friday at Miner Field. Paced by the running of junior halfback Geoff Palmer Pal-mer and the passing of senior quarterback Pat Ott, the Miners rolled up 352 yards total offense while allowing North Sevier only 137. Ott threw only seven passes, but completed four of them for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Palmer had his best game in a Miner uniform, carrying the ball 19 times for 132 yards and one touchdown. Junior fullback Erich Fouse also ran well against the Wolves, picking up 91 yards on only 10 carries. The win gave the Miners a 2-2 record going into their first league game, which will be played at home Friday against Dugway. In spite of their impressive statistics, the Miners started slowly against North Sevier, generating almost no offense until the second quarter. Meanwhile, the Wolves looked impressive. On their first possession they reached Park City territory before being stopped on a diving interception by Ken Collins. On their second possession they scored, putting together a methodical 71-yard drive. The touchdown came on the first play of the second quarter, with sophomore running back Jeff Edwards Park City halfback Geoff Palmer (26) finds himself surrounded by a pack of Wolves. rambling 30 yards. The extra point sailed wide, but the visitors held a 6-0 lead with 11:51 to play in the half. But the lead didn't last. As if aroused from their lethargy lethar-gy by the North Sevier touchdown, the Miners took the kickoff and marched 61 yards to tie the score. Geoff Palmer provided the spark with several big running plays, then carried the ball over from the 1-yard line with 8:23 left in the half. The attempt for the extra point missed, leaving the score tied at 6-6. -Ironically," one factorin Palmer's success was the North Sevier defense, according ac-cording to Park City Coach zone. Palmer carried the' Miners out of their own end with two plays good for 42 yards. Then Ott hit flanker Ken Collins with a 44-yard touchdown pass. Actually, it wasn't the best executed pass play in Miner history. Ott threw what is sometimes known as a "Hail Mary" pass, with Collins that the injury was not serious. The news was less encouraging en-couraging about Chris Bellamy, Bell-amy, a two-way starter who came out of the game in the second quarter with an ankle sprain, Burns said the Bellamy Bell-amy will be out two or three weeks. Burns gave much of the I 'NsNlkfc. K 1 -an- . ,'' ' ... ' -w ....JL.. . .... , Bob Burns. "North Sevier was playing an overshifted defense so we utilized him (Palmer) to the weak side," he said. Park City's second touchdown touch-down drive was set up by a North Sevier fumble near midfield. The drive almost fizzled before it started as Ott was sacked at his own 40. But the Miner quarterback came right back with a key pass completion, rolling out to his right and finding Craig Griffin along the sideline. Another big play came from Fouse, who carried 14 yards on a third-and-13 situation. Ott carried the ball the final yard for the touchdown, Griffin added the extra point, and the Miners had a 13-6 lead at the half. Then came an explosive third quarter which saw the Miners score three more touchdowns in less than 10 minutes. The first came at 1 the 9:23 mark when Fouse 5 broke through the left side of the North Sevier line and raced 47 yards into the end zone. a The next Miner scoring drive covered 86 yards in only four plays after a North Sevier punt had sent the Miners deep into their own and a North Sevier defender having an equal shot at the ball. Fortunately for the Miners, Collins out-jumped the defender at about the 25-yard line, came down with the ball, and rambled into the end zone. Then came the shortest and quickest scoring drive of the day: one play. It was set up by the Park City defense, which forced the Wolves to kick from their own 15-yard line. A short kick gave the Miners possession posses-sion at the North Sevier 33. Then, on a picture-perfect pass, Ott rifled the ball to Griffin who was cutting from the left sideline toward the center of the field. Griffin converted his own touchdown touch-down to complete the Miner scoring with five seconds left in the third quarter. The only scoring in the fourth quarter came from the Wolves, who took advantage advan-tage of three pass interference inter-ference calls against Park City to drive 59 yards for a touchdown. What hurt the Miners more than the touchdown touch-down was the knowledge that Ott had to be taken out of the game after the play with a bruised left shoulder. However, Burns said later credit tor tne win to the v ark City defense which seemed to come together after the first quarter. "I thought our tackles Rick Bruckman and Mike Price played well on defense after the first quarter," he said. Outstanding plays on defense de-fense also came from Collins (two interceptions), Randy Dyer, Todd Mullen and Scott Tatum. This week the defense is working on ways to stop the Dugway Mustangs, who, according to the reports, have a fast backfield, an accurate quarterback and a big line. "They do all kinds of weird plays reverses, trips (such as three receivers on one side of the field) which are difficult to prepare against," Burns said. Dugway comes into the game with a 1-3 record. The Mustangs have lost to Grantsville, a 2A school, to South Rich, and to Duchesne (in overtime). Their only win to date has come over the Altamont Longhorns,20-0. Park City has also beaten the Longhorns this year, 22-6. The Dugway game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. r 1983 Homecoming Queen and Park City High School Senior Class President, Wendy Plummer. |