Solon senior Graeson DallYour Prep Sports

The old sports adage says that defense wins championships.

The Solon defense helped the Spartans lock up a championship on Friday.

Class 3A No. 7 Solon posted its third shutout of the season and second straight, blanking West Burlington/Notre Dame 42-0 at Bill Nelson Field in West Burlington to clinch the District 5 title.

The win was the sixth straight for Solon (7-1) which has shutout half of its district opponents while winning six district contests by a combined score of 236-25.

“Our defense has just been tremendous the last few weeks and we were real stout tonight,” Solon coach Kevin Miller said. “I don’t know how many yards we gave up but I think it was under 100 and they have some dynamic athletes.”

Blayze Griffis threw for 209 yards and two touchdowns and added a 35-yard touchdown run as Solon rolled up 426 yards of total offense.

However, this game was again about the Solon defense as the Spartans allowed less than 170 yards of total offense for the fourth straight game.
Solon senior quarterback Blayze Griffis
Graeson Dall and Trevor McGill each had interceptions as Solon forced four Falcon turnovers while Jacob Coons and Tyler Linderbaum each record sacks for Solon.

“I thought we did a real nice job of keeping those guys in check and just playing good disciplined defense,” Miller said. “I couldn’t have been more pleased with our overall defensive effort.”

Dall caught two touchdown passes and ran for a score in the first half as Solon built a 29-0 halftime lead.

Griffis connected with Dall for a 29-yard touchdown pass less than three minutes into the game to give Solon an early 7-0 lead.

Dall was just getting warmed up.

The senior receiver added a 13-yard touchdown run just more than two minutes later to put Solon up 14-0 with 7:08 left in the first quarter.

Griffis and Dall connected again, this time for a 15-yard touchdown to put Solon up 22-0 with 7:08 left in the second quarter.

Dall finished with four catches for 76 yards and two scores and also rushed for 24 yards and a touchdown.

“He is a dynamic play maker and he has the ability to catch the football but also to run the football so we are trying to use his various strengths to put him in position to use his skill set,” Miller said. “He had a great game tonight.”

Trevor Nelson capped the first-half scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run to put Solon on top 29-0 at the half.

Griffis completed 10-of-15 passes for 209 yards with Coons grabbing three passes for 74 yards. Solon finished with 217 rushing yards led by junior Kendrick Harris with 62 yards on 16 carries.

“I was just overall really pleased with our offensive production as well,” Miller said. “We mixed in the run and the pass and our offensive line did a nice job and Blayze did a nice job of managing the game and it was just a total team effort.”

Solon concludes the regular season next week at Fairfield (5-3) and secured a home game in the opening round of the 3A playoffs by winning the district title.

West Burlington/Notre Dame  0   0   0  0 – 0
Solon                                         14 15 13 0 – 42

SOL – Graeson Dall 29 pass from Blayze Griffis (Anthony Bullard kick)
SOL – Dall 13 run (Bullard kick)
SOL – Dall 15 pass from Griffis (Trevor Nelson pass from Spencer Wegmann)
SOL – Nelson 1 run (Bullard kick)
SOL – Griffis 35 run (Bullard kick)
SOL – Bryce West 2 run (Kick failed)