Top-Ranked Spartans Keep Doing What they Do in Rout of Fort Madison
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
SOLON – Kevin Miller has asked his Solon team to adopt a simple mantra this season.
“Do what we do”.
What Solon has done the most this season is dominant and the Spartans were back at it on Friday.
Class 3A top-ranked Solon scored on six of its first seven possessions and rolled to a 62-0 homecoming win over Fort Madison in a District 5 matchup at Spartan Stadium.
“We do what we do and that’s just play tough physical football especially on the defensive end,” Miller said. “We talk about the process of doing things a certain way and we just really talk about being physical with this group.”
Friday was the Spartan’s “Do what we do” mentality at its finest.
Solon was efficient on offense, rolling up 284 total yards on 27 first-half plays and smothering on defense, posting its fourth shutout of the season and limiting Fort Madison (3-3, 1-3 District 5) to 21 total yards.
“We say ‘we do what we do’ and everything that we do and we expect to dominate,” Solon senior Payton Bandy said. “That’s what we want to do.”
Solon was doing what it wanted to do in every phase of the game while improving to 6-0 on the season and 4-0 in District 5 play.
Sophomore quarterback Cam Miller threw three first-half touchdown passes, two to Bandy as Solon scored 41 points in 12 minute, 14 second span in first half.
“Our defense came out another night and dominated and that gives us a lot of confidence on offense,” Bandy said. “We’ve been working on our offense all week and it definitely showed tonight.”
Kendrick Harris rushed for 103 yards and two-first half touchdowns as Solon scored 60 points for the first time since putting up 64 win a win over Anamosa in 2013.
“Do what we do just means that we play our style of football which is hard physical and tough,” Cam Miller said. “That’s what we do and we just focused on coming out and getting the job done.”
Bandy gave Solon an early lead out jumping a Fort Madison defender for 14-yard touchdown grab less than four minutes into the game.
It remained 7-0 until Harris scored on a 5-yard jaunt with 3:12 left in the first quarter.
The touchdown by Harris set off a 41-point scoring spurt by Solon that took a little more than one quarter.
Solon scored on touchdown drives of 6, 4, 2, 3 and 2 plays and capped its first-half scoring when junior safety Dillon Hoit returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown that put the Spartans up 48-0 with 3:26 left in the opening half.
The front seven is playing really well and now the secondary is playing outstanding,” Kevin Miller said. “They are a unit and they play extremely well together.”
A Solon defense that has been stellar all season was at its best on Friday.
Solon didn’t allow a first down until there was less than nine minutes left in the second quarter and only allowed three in the game.
Both of the first-half first downs for Fort Madison came via Solon penalty.
Solon forced five turnovers, as Hoit, Jack Stahle and Chase Gehrke all picked off passes with Hoit recording the Spartans fifth defensive touchdown of the season with his 35-yard return.
Fort Madison finished with 19 total yards including two rushing yards on 31 attempts with 40 yards coming on one third-quarter carry by senior Alex Gully.
“We’ve had some great defenses and I don’t want to put that tag on them to say that they are the best defense that I have ever been around,” Kevin Miller said. “They are a great defense, it’s unfair to those other teams we’ve had to compare but they have something special obviously.”
The Solon defense helped the Spartans put the game away in the second quarter.
An interception by Stahle turned into a 4-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a 40-yard catch and run by Bandy on a tunnel screen.
“It’s nice having a great receiver like Payton out there,” Cam Miller said. “He’s another guy that can make plays.”
After a 41-yard touchdown run by Harris made it 28-0 a high snap on a Fort Madison punt attempt set Solon up 1st and goal at the 7.
Three plays later Hunter Kula plunged in from a yard out to make it 34-0.
Following a Fort Madison 3-and-out, a 54-yard strike from Miller to Coons made it 41-0 with 4:47 left in the first half.
“Bandy is hard to tackle, he’s 6-foot-2 and then there is AJ who is fast and tall and long,” Cam Miller said. “They are different but they are both really good.”
Cam Miller and the rest of the Solon starters sat the second half as the clock ran via the 35-point rule.
Miller finished 5-of-10 passing for 145 yards with Bandy snagging three passes for 75 yards and two scores.
Solon finished 359 yards of total offense.
“We feel like we have the pieces still offensively to be better yet honestly,” Kevin Miller said. “We are rushing the football the way we want to, the offensive line is getting better, Cam is continuing to grow and develop but we just feel like we can be more consistent on the offensive end. I think that’s what we are really striving for is offensively consistency. Timing in the pass game, our read game all of it we feel can still be improved.”
SOL FM
First Downs 16 3
Rushes-Yards 35-181 31-2
Comp-Att-Int 6-12-0 6-20-3
Passing Yards 178 19
Punts-Avg. 2-50 6-29.3
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 6-2
Penalties-Yards 5-45 5-38
Solon 21 27 7 7 – 62
Fort Madison 0 0 0 0 – 0
SOL – Payton Bandy 14 pass from Cam Miller (Aidan Dall kick)
SOL – Kendrick Harris 5 run (Dall kick)
SOL – Bandy 40 pass from Miller (Dall kick)
SOL – Harris 41 run (Dall kick)
SOL – Hunter Kula 1 run (Kick failed)
SOL – AJ Coons 54 pass from Miller (Dall kick)
SOL – Dillon Hoit 35 interception return (Dall kick)
SOL – Colton Spillman 33 pass from Ben Krutzfeldt (Alex Allen kick)
SOL – Krutzfeldt 1 run (Allen kick)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING – SOL: Kendrick Harris 11-103, Hunter Kula 10-66, Seamus Poynton 2-9, Mason Stahle 6-9, Ben Krutzfeldt 3-0, Team 3-(-6). FM: Alex Gully 20-52, Diego Lozano 5-20, Will Larson 3-(-14), Team 3-(-56).
PASSING – SOL: Cam Miller 5-10-0 145, Ben Krutzfeldt 1-1-0 33, Seamus Poynton 0-1-0 0. FM: Lennon Barker 2-12-1 13, Will Larson 4-8-2 6.
RECEIVING – SOL: Payton Bandy 3-75, AJ Coons 1-54, Colton Spillman 1-32, Adam Bock 1-16. FM: Lorenzo Riles II 4-8, Alex Gully 1-7, Tyler O’Tool 1-4.