Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – To those that enjoy offense Friday night’s week two showdown between WAMAC rivals Solon and Clear Creek Amana was a little ugly.

For Solon senior defensive end Ben Kampman and his defensive teammates it was a thing of beauty.

Most importantly for Solon it was a win.

Solon came up with three fourth down stops in the second half and held on for a 7-3 win over Clear Creek Amana in a defensive slug fest at Spartan Stadium in Solon.

“Slug fests are great,” Kampman said. “I love a game like this.”

Solon (1-1) scored the only touchdown of the game in the first quarter on a Barret Schade 1-yard run and relied on a dominating defense effort in the second half to hang on.

The Spartans limited Clear Creek Amana (0-2) to 88 total yards and four first downs while shutting out the Clippers after halftime.

“I said before the game it’s going to be like 7-3, or 6-3, it’s going to be low scoring game, we are both good defenses and their scheme was really good,” Solon senior linebacker Brett White said. “We played our tails off, we had a few mistakes on defense but we came back and we have guys that pick each other up.”

Solon didn’t score an offensive touchdown in a season-opening loss to Davenport Assumption in which the Spartans had just 123 yards of total offense while averaging 2.4 yards per play.

The Spartans didn’t exactly explode offensively on Friday against a stout Clipper defense but made enough plays, especially early to get a much-needed win.

Junior quarterback Tyler Bell completed 8-of-13 passes for 91 yards and Schade and Brayden Moore combined to rush for 65 yards as Solon finished with 170 total yards.

“We knew we just had to do whatever it took to get a win, that was top priority for us,” Bell said. “We knew only one team in the past however many years had started off 0-2 and we just needed that little push to get us going in the right direction.”

Solon went 3-and-out on its opening possession but got a spark on its second drive of the game.

On third-and-four play Bell found an open Grant Knipper for a short pass and Knipper broke a tackle, weave to the sideline and broke another tackle before racing to the 8 yard line.

The 57-yard pass to Knipper was the longest play of the game for either team and set up the 1-yard touchdown run by Schade on third and goal.

“That was a huge spark for us,” Bell said of the catch and run by Knipper. “That brought energy to stadium, the sideline to everybody. After that everybody just dialed into the game.”

Clear Creek Amana used its own long pass play to cut into the lead.

Quinton Tran hit senior receiver Haiden Hardy on a beautiful pass for a 52-yard gain down the sideline that set up the Clippers with a first and goal.

The Solon defense held, posting back-to-back tackles for loss on second and third down and Clear Creek Amana settled for a 21-yard field goal by Carson Cecak that cut the lead to 7-3.

“I think this was two teams that are much farther ahead right now on the defensive side than offensively,” Clear Creek Amana coach Matt Haddy said. “Both defenses played really well their defense just played a little bit better and their offense made a play when they needed to.”

Neither team could do much offensively after halftime.

Clear Creek Amana had a fourth and one at the Solon 35 on its opening possession of the second half but Brayden Moore made a tackle for loss on an end around.

“Last week we did not tackle very well and we kind of focused on that this week,” White said. “That was our main thing is we have to make plays, we have to make tackles.

Clear Creek Amana advanced into Solon territory on its next possession but had a holding penalty stall the drive.

The ensuing possession the Clippers went 3-and-out after starting a drive at the Spartan 30 yard line.

“It was a good mix of things they were doing defensively and we shot ourselves in the foot in some situations too,” Haddy said. “When you are struggling offensively it’s really hard to put yourself in those situations and it was similar situation to last week too.”

Clear Creek Amana had one final shot, advancing to the Solon 37 yard line with under four minutes to play but had three consecutive incomplete passes end the drive.

Solon then ran out the clock picking up two first downs in the ensuing possession.

“We just needed a tough, gritty win but we need to be better offensively,” Solon coach Lucas Stanton said. “We made a lot of bone head mistakes and those are things we have to continue to fix. I think if our defense keeps playing how we are playing and our offense comes along we are a pretty good football team.”

                                      SOL               CCA

First Downs                7                     9

Rushes-yards              32-79             30-85

Comp-Att-Int              8-13-0           11-18-0

Passing yards              91                   113

Total yards                  170                198

Punts-avg.                   5-26.4            4-32

Fumbles-lost               1-0                  2-1

Penalties-yards           5-35                6-36

Clear Creek Amana         0  3  0  0  –  0

Solon                                      7  0  0  0  –  7

SOL – Barret Schade 1 run (Grant Knipper kick)

CCA – Carson Cecak 21 field goal

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Solon: Brayden Moore 7-39, Barret Schade 7-26, Milo Ashbacker 7-18, Cole Carney 1-18, Eddie Johnson 1-1, Jack McCarty 1-0, Tyler Bell 8-(-23). Clear Creek Amana: Jackson Stevens 14-60, Quinton Tran 15-26, Owen Rosenberg 1-(-1).

PASSING – Solon: Tyler Bell 8-13-0 91. Clear Creek Amana: Quinton Tran 11-18-0 113

RECEIVING – Solon: Nash Kotar 2-11, Eddie Johnson 2-7, Grant Knipper 1-57, Cole Farnsworth 1-8, Oliver Owens 1-6, Jack McCarty 1-2. Clear Creek Amana:  Owen Rosenburg 6-3, Haiden Hardy 2-64, Jackson Stevens 2-27, Cale Berry 1-19

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