Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

Solon will have a chance to lock up a district title and a Class 3A playoff berth in its regular season home finale on Friday against Keokuk.

To put itself in that position the second-ranked Spartans first had to take care of business away from home.

Solon (7-0) took control of the Class 3A, District 6 race and bolted to the top of the 3A RPI rankings over the past two weeks with back-to-back road wins over No. 10 Washington and Mount Pleasant.

“Two weeks ago we talked about taking on this road warrior mentality,” Solon head coach Kevin Miller said. “We knew three out of last four games were going to be on the road and if you are a championship team then you have to go on the road and beat good teams. I think Washington is a good team as is Mount Pleasant I was just pleased with how we responded to some of the adversity we were faced with.”

Two weeks ago Solon trailed Washington 20-7 at halftime before outscoring the Demons 28-0 over the final two quarters.

On Friday the Spartans built a 35-0 lead over Mount Pleasant (5-2) in the first three quarters of a 35-14 win.

“I just feel like the last game and a half we have made improvement in our football team and we needed to,” Miller said. “We still haven’t put what I would consider four full quarters together in every phase, we’ve had glimpses but we need to be consistent in all phases.”

Solon has been clicking on all cylinders since falling into the first-half hole against Washington.

Senior quarterback Cam Miller threw for three second-half touchdowns in the win over Washington and rushed for a career-high 169 yards against the Demons.

On Friday against Mount Pleasant Miller accounted for 265 yards of total offense and two touchdowns.

Miller passed for 193 yards and rushed for 72 yards and two scores.

“We’ve been more purposeful on offense and getting Cam more involved in the run game and the read game specifically,” Miller said. “We are doing some things now offensively to create problems for defenses. We are more balanced than what we have been because we’ve expanded our playbook and we are putting more on this plate and he’s handled it pretty well.”

Solon put up 342 total yards and averaged better than 7.4 yards per play against the Panthers while limiting Mount Pleasant to 259 total yards and a pair of late touchdowns.

After giving up a touchdown on the final play of the first half against Washington, the Spartans held opponents scoreless for five consecutive quarters.

“I was really proud of our defense,” Miller said. “We gave up some yards but we didn’t give up any big plays. Offensively we were productive and balanced and special teams wise we got better.

Solon can clinch the District 6 title on Friday when it hosts Keokuk (5-2) in its regular season home finale.

Third Down Efficiency: A big key in putting points on the board is keeping drives alive on third down.

West High did that with impressive efficiency on Friday in a 21-14 win over Davenport North.

The Trojans converted first downs on 9-of-14 third down attempts on Friday, converting five of its final six opportunities on third down.

West High went 3-for-3 on third down in its first scoring drive of the game, converting on third-and-11 and third-and-20 plays on that drive.

The Trojans were also 2-for-2 on third downs on its game winning drive.  

RPI Update: With two weeks remaining in the regular season three are teams are in the top 10 of their respective in the most recent RPI rankings by the Iowa High School Athletic Association to select at-large playoff teams.

Solon (7-0) is No. 1 in the Class 3A RPI rankings while Liberty High (5-2) is currently at No. 18 in 3A.

West Branch (7-0) is No. 2 in Class 1A while Regina (6-1) is eighth.

Big Man Touchdown: Everybody loves watching a big guy get a touchdown and the biggest guy on the West Branch defense got into the act on Friday.

Junior Jeff Bowie picked up a fumble and rumbled a school-record 93 yards for a score in a 42-0 win over Northeast.

The first touchdown for the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Bowie gave West Branch an eye-popping six defensive scores in seven games this season.

Bowie’s 93-yard return broke the previous school records for longest fumble return and longest fumble return for a touchdown of 80-yards set in 1995.

Offensive performer of the week: West Branch senior Tanner Lukavsky rushed for 190 yards and three touchdowns in a 42-0 win over Northeast.

Lukavsky also caught a pass for two yards and completed a pass for three yards as West Branch improved to 7-0 on the season.

Best of the rest: Solon senior Cam Miller completed 13-of-17 passes for 193 yards and also rushed for 72 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-14 win over Mount Pleasant.

Regina senior Josh Dutchik caught four passes for 89 yards and a touchdown in a 37-28 win over North Linn.

Liberty High senior Kaleb Williams rushed for 156 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries in a 14-12 win over Central DeWitt.

Defensive performer of the week: Liberty High needed a strong defensive effort to keep its playoff hopes alive on Friday and the Lightning got just that from senior defensive lineman Harrison Voigt.

Voigt had three sacks as Liberty High downed Central DeWitt 14-12 in a key district road win.

Best of the rest: Solon junior Carson Shive had a team-high eight tackles and an interception in a 35-14 win over Mount Pleasant.

West High junior defensive back Tyuss Bell had two interceptions and made three solo tackles including one for loss in a 21-14 win over Davenport North.

Clear Creek Amana senior Kaden Gisleson had a team-high 10.5 tackles, including six solo stops and a tackle for loss and also picked off a pass in a 27-14 loss to Davenport Assumption.

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