Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – In a Solon offense filled with playmakers it’s easy to overlook Seamus Poynton.

The more performances like Poynton put together on Friday the harder it will be to look past the senior running back.

Poynton rushed for a career-high 113 yards and a touchdown and caught a 39-yard touchdown pass as second-ranked Solon clinched the Class 3A, District 6 title with a 42-0 win over Keokuk (5-3) at Spartan Stadium.

“People talk about the three division one guys on our team and our receivers a lot but at the end of the day Seamus is a stud,” Solon senior quarterback Cam Miller said. “He just makes big plays and makes guys miss.”

Poynton was the offensive sparkplug for Solon (8-0, 4-0) on Friday after the Spartans sputtered early on senior night.

The 6-0, 195-pound Poynton had two carries for five yards as three first-quarter possessions netted seven points for Solon.

Poynton had runs of 27, 17 and 10 yards on a 6-play, 91-yard touchdown drive that ended with a 5-yard Jace Andregg touchdown and put Solon up 14-0.

The Poynton-powered drive started a string of three straight Solon touchdown possessions as the Spartans scored 21 points in less than four minutes while building a 28-0 halftime lead.  

“In the beginning we always like to toy with things and see what will work and what won’t,” Poynton said. “We have a counter play and they were vacating the area and I just had to run behind my guys so it’s hard to mess that up.”
The Solon defense set up a pair of touchdowns late in the second quarter with turnovers.

Thomas Brandt made a diving interception at the Keokuk 15 yard line and after Poynton gained 11 yards on two carries Cam Miller scored on a 4-yard touchdown keep.

Andregg recovered a fumble at the Keokuk four-yard line on the ensuing Chief possession and Poynton scored on the next play to make it 28-0 Spartans.  

“I think we took a step back after that first quarter and realized this is senior night and it’s our last regular season home game of the year and we needed to step it up,” Poynton said. “I felt like the team came together, the seniors led it and it worked out pretty well.”

Poynton had 75of his 113 rushing yards on eight first-half carries.

The senior gave the Spartans a 35-0 lead when he caught a screen pass from Miller and raced 39 yards for a score on the opening drive of the second half.

“He has great vision, great balance and honestly his best football I think is ahead of him,” Solon coach Kevin Miller said. “We probably haven’t given him as many carries as we possibly should have but he continues to get better each week. I thought he did a great job, the offensive line was outstanding as a whole I was just really proud of our team and how they responded after a slow start.”

Poynton entered Friday night with 360 rushing yards while averaging better than five yards per carry.

The Spartans expect Poynton to carry a heavier workload as the season goes on.

“He’s a great athlete he just hasn’t gotten that many touches,” Cam Miller said. “He’s a guy we are really going to rely on down the stretch.”

The Spartans relied on Poynton and a stiff defense to lock up a district crown and a 33rd consecutive regular season win on Friday.

Solon limited Keokuk to 83 total yards and four first downs, with 22 yards coming on the opening drive of the game.

“Defensively I was happy with how we played,” Solon senior linebacker Jax Flynn said. “I think we could have been better on the first drive but overall I thought we were really good.”

Solon scored on its opening drive of the game when Miller found Andregg for a 14-yard touchdown pass with 4:51 left in the first quarter.

Miller also added a 5-yard scoring strike to AJ Coons to cap the scoring in the third quarter as four different Spartans found the endzone.

“I like the way we operate on offense because as much as I love carrying the ball or scoring I love blocking, I like picking up blitzes or helping protect Cam on that deep ball,” Poynton said. “I love this team so I’m fine with however we do it. Whoever scores, scores.”

                                    SOL                KEO

First downs                15                    4

Rushes-yards             26-153             25-66

Comp-Att-Int             14-21-1            8-19-1

Passing yards             159                  17

Total yards                 312                  83

Punts-avg.                  0-0                   5-15

Fumbles-lost               0-0                   1-0

Penalties-yards          5-46                 4-32

Solon             7  21  14  0  –  42

Keokuk          0   0    0   0  –   0

SOL – Jace Andregg 14 pass from Cam Miller (Cael O’Neill)

SOL – Andregg 5 run (O’Neill kick)

SOL – Miller 4 run (O’Neill kick)

SOL – Seamus Poynton 4 run (O’Neill kick)

SOL – Poynton 39 pass from Miller (O’Neill kick)

SOL – AJ Coons 5 pass from Miller (O’Neill kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – SOL: Seamus Poynton 12-113, Cam Miller 5-12, True Eidahl 6-10, Bo Janssen 1-11, Jace Andregg 2-7. KEO: Corey Skinner 4-22, Equilius Lee 6-21, Braylon Martinez 13-16, Callum Takes 2-7.

PASSING – SOL: Cam Miller 14-19-1 159, Bo Janssen 0-2-0 0. KEO: Corey Skinner 8-19-1 17.

RECEIVING – SOL: AJ Coons 9-88, Seamus Poynton 2-31, Jace Andregg 2-11, Joe Stahle 1-29. KEO: Anthony Potratz 3-10, TyJai Mueller 2-7, Eddie Lee 2-3, Callum Takes 1-(-3).

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