Park City tops Brighton for 5A boys lacrosse state title

Park City turned a rematch into redemption Saturday at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, beating Brighton 10-6 to win the 5A boys lacrosse state championship and stop the Bengals from completing a three-peat. The Miners seized control with a 6-0 second-quarter run, then carried a 7-1 halftime lead after blanking Brighton after the first quarter.

Henry Alnwick drove the attack with two goals and two assists, while Wade Birch added two goals and an assist. Park City had 10 different players score, a sign of the balanced offense coach Michael Persky has built into the program. Persky also picked up his 100th win with the Miners in the title game, a milestone that matched the scale of the moment for a team that finished 18-3.

The championship was won at the other end, too. Park City’s defense held Brighton scoreless after the opening quarter, with seniors Harper Brent and Ben Gibbs, sophomore Reid McCurdy, and long-stick middies Wyatt Williams and Matix Black helping anchor the unit. The Miners did not allow more than six goals in any of their 18 wins, a number that underscored how firmly they controlled games all spring and how quickly they could suffocate an opponent once they got ahead.

The title also completed a season-long reversal against Brighton. The Bengals had beaten Park City 10-9 in the 2025 championship game after a six-goal fourth-quarter comeback and had entered Saturday chasing their third straight 5A crown. Park City answered in the regular season on April 3 with a 5-3 win, then finished the job in the state final.

For Summit County, the win marked more than another trophy. Park City’s 17 seniors had spent two years living with championship-game losses to Brighton, and they turned that frustration into a title run that restored the Miners to the top of Utah boys lacrosse. Park City has now won three 5A championships, adding the 2026 crown to titles in 2022 and 2023, and Park City and Brighton have claimed all five state titles since the sport was sanctioned in Utah in 2020. That rivalry has become the measuring stick for the sport in the state, and Saturday’s result swung it back to the Miners.