Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

MOUNT VERNON – For Solon, it was a game of missed opportunities.

Rival Mount Vernon cashed in on its early chances, while the Spartans did not.

“They made plays in the first half,” third-year Solon Coach Lucas Stanton said after the seventh-ranked Spartans were blanked by No. 2 Mount Vernon, 17-0, in a Class 3A quarterfinal playoff game Friday night at Mount Vernon’s 1st Street Field. “In a game like this between two evenly-matched teams, it comes down to a couple of plays in the game.”

In a game played through a driving rain from beginning to end, Mount Vernon (11-0) raced out to a 7-0 lead on the first possession of the game with an impressive drive that covered 77 yards in 11 plays, highlighted by 32-yard pass completion on third down from junior quarterback Joey Rhomberg to senior receiver Brady Erickson and a five-yard conversion on fourth down from Rhomberg to junior receiver Evan Brase to the Solon 10-yard line.

“Those (were) big third, fourth-down conversions,” Solon junior defensive end Ben Kampman said.

Two plays later, junior tailback Jackson Hird plunged across the goal line from two yards out for the opening score.

Late in the second quarter, Solon strung together a pair of drives of its own, but were unceremoniously turned away both times inside the Mount Vernon 10-yard line.

A 14-play drive had the Spartans a yard away from the tying touchdown, but as the rains picked up the ball got slippery and Solon ball carriers fumbled on two consecutive plays.

The first was ruled down by contact, but the second was smothered by Mount Vernon senior linebacker Zatyk Holub.

“It was a little bit of a mishandled snap,” Solon senior quarterback Blake Timmons said. “I take responsibility for that. I didn’t secure the snap right away.”

After a Mount Vernon punt gave Solon the ball at the Mustangs’ 30, the Spartans got as close as the 11 before a tipped pass from Timmons was intercepted by Holub inside the 10 and returned to the Mount Vernon 16.

“I was getting hit as I threw, nothing you can do about that,” Timmons said. “Just how the game goes sometimes. Give credit to them. They made some good plays.”

Mount Vernon pushed its advantage to two scores with the final drive of the first half.

Beginning at their own 15-yard line, Rhomberg connected senior receiver Jensen Meeker for completions of 28 and 45 yards, which set up a 29-yard field goal and a 10-0 Mustangs’ lead with six seconds left in the first half by senior Ben Crock.

“That first drive and that last drive of the first half, if you look back at the game, those were the crucial plays of the game,” Stanton said.

Solon turned the ball over four times and was unable to force any against Mount Vernon.

The second half was largely a defensive stalemate as the temperatures dipped to the high 40s and the rain persisted.

“It took away some of the quick-pass game stuff that we thought we had,” Stanton said.

Mount Vernon capped its night with a 3-yard touchdown run by Rhomberg with 1:50 to go.

Rhomberg finished with 142 passing yards for the Mustangs, who will play Humboldt (10-1) in a state semifinal game next Saturday at 7 p.m. at UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

After it ended a 19-game losing streak to Solon back on Sep. 2 with a 17-14 home victory, Mount Vernon has a win streak of two against the Spartans.

“Maybe they are just the better team,” Kampman said. “Well played by them.”

Solon ends its season at 8-3, and Timmons expects to announce in a few days whether he will play football, baseball or both at the next level.

“Just thanked our seniors,” Stanton said. “Thanked them for everything that they have given to the program and their leadership when we were going through a tough stretch early in the season. Could have gone one of two ways and they righted the ship in order to have an opportunity at this team again.”

                                       SOL                MV

First Downs               8                      11

Rushes-yards             37-85               35-77

Comp-Att-Int            3-11-2             10-24-0

Passing yards             23                    137

Total yards                108                  214

Punts-avg.                  6-29.8              6-32

Fumbles-lost              5-2                   2-0

Penalties-yards          4-30                 5-35

Solon                          0  0  0  0  –  0

Mount Vernon           7  3  0  7  – 17

MV – Jackson Hird 3 run (Ben Crock kick)

MV – FG Ben Crock 29

MV – Joey Rhomberg 3 run (Ben Crock kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – SOL: Blake Timmons 15-29, Sean Stahle 2-(-8), Brett White 19-63, Barret Schade 1-1. MV: Henry Ryan 24-77, Joey Rhomberg 9-(-3), Jackson Hird 2-3.

PASSING – SOL: Blake Timmons 3-11-2 23. MV: Joey Rhomberg 11-25-0 142.

RECEIVING – SOL: Cole Buffington 1-8, Sean Stahle 2-15. MV: Evan Brase 2-11, Brady Erickson 2-39, Caden Stimmel 3-13, Jensen Meeker 2-73, Henry Ryan 1-(-1), Austin Deeb 1-7.