Many Miners girls soccer players got in their final preparations for the upcoming season during last week’s Park City Extreme Cup.  While the Park City U17 cup team fell on Friday morning to a team from Idaho in their second-to-last game of the tournament, players walked away with smiles. Coa ch Anthony DiCicco, who also leads the Miners team, said he believes the team made progress throughout the tournament whether they won, lost or drew.  “We were better in the first half of this game than we were in the second half of yesterday’s game, and we were better in the second half of yesterday’s game than we were in the first half of yesterday’s game,” DiCicco said. “We just have to keep building that momentum. Playing against better teams and good competition is great for us and certainly gives us the opportunity to develop.” Park City players Stella Arend and Brooklyn Mascardo said they think the team worked hard and grew closer last week. Arend will be a junior midfielder for the Miners team and Mascardo a junior goalkeeper. Both players were on varsity last season as sophomores.  “It’s important to get on this beautiful field and get touches, try to score and just bond with the people around you,” Mascardo said. “So when you get into high school and get in that pressure-filled environment, you can work together and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.” Mascardo said much of that team had been playing in the cup together for about six years. Arend and her family had moved to Park City her eighth grade year, making her a relative newcomer with only a couple of years experience.  DiCicco, Arend and Mascardo will open the high school season Tuesday against Lone Peak at 3:30 p.m. on the road. Lone Peak is a larger, 6A opponent from Highland who made the 6A state championship game last season. The Miners home opener will be against rival Wasatch at the fields at Quinn’s Junction at 7 p.m. Thursday.  “The girls, coaches and parents are excited,” DiCicco said. “We open the season for the varsity team with a return fixture to Lone Peak on Tuesday after playing a great game with them last year where they found a late winner and beat us 1-0. I know the girls are really excited to have another opportunity against such a high-level competitor.” DiCicco’s girls team has set a high standard for soccer in Park City over the last few years. They reached the 4A state title game in 2023 and went 15-4 and 17-4 the last two seasons, respectively. The Miners only graduated three seniors off last year’s team.  “It’s a group that is continually pushing to the highest standards in the state,” DiCicco said. “It’s about extracting the lessons from all of those seasons. … It’s a big senior class who recognize there’s a tremendous opportunity in front of them and want to do everything that they can to take advantage of that.” The Miners have players who are already committed to play college soccer. The team will likely be among the contenders for the 4A state championship in October.  “We will play senior night over at the newly renovated Dozier at the end of September,” DiCicco said. “But for all of our other games, we’ll be over at Quinn’s and certainly encourage the community to come out and support the girls. … The fields are in tremendous shape. The Park City Recreation staff deserves a tremendous amount of credit. In fact, two college teams from Utah have already been up to train on it, Weber State was up, and today, UVU.” The post Miners girls soccer team begins season Tuesday appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less