Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR FALLS – In his UNI-Dome debut two years ago AJ Coons thought he gave Solon a 7-0 lead with a leaping touchdown grab on the Spartans’ first possession.

Instead Coons was ruled out of bounds, the Solon drive stalled and the Spartans ended up falling into a 35-point halftime hole it couldn’t dig out of against Cedar Rapids Xavier.

Two years later Coons still believes his catch as a sophomore should have resulted in an early Solon score.

In his return to the UNI-Dome on Thursday Coons made sure he left no doubt while getting Solon off to a strong start.

Coons caught a 65-yard touchdown pass from Cam Miller on the first play from scrimmage as No. 2 Solon (12-0) returned to the state title game for the first time since 2010 with a 43-36 win over seventh-ranked Sergeant Bluff-Luton (10-2) in a 3A semifinal.

“Biased opinion but I thought we should have been up 7-0 two years ago,” Coons said. “That first touchdown just kind of set the fire for our team and showed us we belonged in this game.

Solon started the game at its own 35 yard line after the opening kickoff went out of bounds.

On the first play Miller connected with Coons on a go route for a 65-yard touchdown just nine seconds into the game.

“Coming into the game if they were going to press AJ and then have one high safety we were going to take a shot and that’s what they did,” Cam Miller said. “We connected big on it.”
That was just the start for Coons and Miller who were both sophomore starters on the 2017 Solon team that fell to Cedar Rapids Xavier 35-7 in the semifinals.

Miller passed for 125 yards and threw two interceptions in the 2017 semifinal loss. Coons didn’t record a catch in that game.

In their return to the UNI-Dome the duo connected for touchdown passes on Solon’s first three offensive possessions helping the Spartans take an early 21-9 lead.

Miller hit Coons for a 43-yard strike on the Spartans’ second offensive series and Coons made a leaping grab on a fade route on third down for a 7-yard score that put Solon up 21-9 with 9:25 left in the first half.

“We talked about starting fast,” Solon coach Kevin Miller said. “We have started the last two games in the playoffs pretty fast and obviously we did a great job again tonight in establishing ourselves.”

Miller finished 15-of-21 passing for 310 yards and four touchdowns, adding a 40-yard scoring strike to Jace Andregg.

The senior quarterback also rushed for 46 yards and a score.

Coons caught four passes for 130 yards and three touchdowns.

“Last time we were here it was a pretty emotional time for us and we’ve talked about that a lot since that game,” Coons said. “To be able to erase that memory and replace it with this one you can’t ask for any more than that especially with a chance to play in a state championship game.”

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