Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – If Solon is to reach its potential this season and duplicate the success of past years the Spartans will need their senior leaders to set the tone.

The veteran Spartans did just that in Friday’s opener against Davenport Assumption.

Senior tailback Eddie Johnson rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown and senior quarterback Tyler Bell threw for 200 yard and two touchdowns as Solon rolled to a 33-7 win over Davenport Assumption at Spartan Stadium.

“I liked everything about our seniors, how they approached the end of the week and I loved how they came out tonight and led,” Solon coach Lucas Stanton said. “That’s why we got off to a good start is because of those guys.”

Johnson had a 39-yard touchdown run less than two minutes into the game and Bell threw a 10-yard scoring strike to sophomore Maddox Kelley as Solon (1-0) bolted to a 17-0 first-quarter lead.

Bell tossed another scoring strike, a 42 yarder to fellow senior Karsyn Regennitter and senior Cole Carney scored on a 3-yard run as Solon built a 30-0 halftime lead.

“We know what’s expected of us as seniors, it’s just leading the younger guys,” Johnson said. “A lot of those guys are studs, they are going to be studs but it’s just leading the way like the guys did on our team last year.”

Solon was 10-2 a year ago and advanced to the Class 3A quarterfinals.

However, only a handful of starters returned from that team, a group led by the likes of Johnson, Bell, Carney and senior center Grant Wilson.

The group of seniors has embraced the expectation of leading a talented but inexperienced roster, especially early in the season.

“We know we have to lead but it’s everybody that can step up,” Bell said. “Our seniors have a voice and we know we have to lead but everybody on this team is willing to step up.”

Solon got contributions from every early.

Junior Einar Stecher set up a score with a blocked punt that was scooped up by Carney.

Kelley caught three passes for 28 yards, senior Owen Einwalter, a reserve last season had a pair of catches for 28 yards as eight different Spartans caught a pass.

“They played great, they didn’t let the lights shine too bright,” Johnson said. “We were ready for this night.”

Two seasons ago Solon started 1-2.

A year ago Solon was limited to 123 total yards in a 34-7 loss at Assumption in the opener.

During preseason practices getting off to a better start to the season was a focus.

The Solon seniors led that charge.

“That’s something we had talked about is we didn’t feel like we got off to a very good start last year or the year before so we had to do something to get off to a faster start,” Stanton said. “We changed some things but we challenged the guys to be a little more mentally locked in and the seniors took that and ran with it.”

Johnson raced 39 yards for a touchdown to put Solon up 7-0 with 10:37 remaining in the opener quarter.

Bell found Kelley for a touchdown to make it 14-0 with 2:55 left in the first quarter and Stecher set up the first of two Ryan Locke field goals with his blocked punt late in the first quarter.

“We knew that guys were going to be nervous but they got rid of that quick,” Bell said. “Those guys came ready to play.”

Wilson was the lone full-time returning starter on the Solon offensive line but the Spartans were strong up front on both sides on Friday.

Solon ran for 158 yards and averaged better than 4.6 yards per carry.

“I would say we answered some of the questions, we still have a long way to go, but with people saying we were inexperienced and young I think we answered some of those question,” Wilson said. “There are always ways to get better, always room to improve but I think with the group of guys we have with a little less experience we played a great first game.”

Solon limited Davenport Assumption (0-1) to 189 total yards and just 82 yards rushing.

“We knew they wanted to run the ball heavily and that was one of our question marks was how were we going to replace all those guys on defense and I liked how we ran to the football,” Stanton said. “We kept it simple and didn’t over think things.”

                                    SOL              DA

First Downs                22                    11

Rushes-yards              34-158             38-82

Comp-Att-Int              13-22-0           9-23-0

Passing yards              200                  107

Total yards                  358                  189

Punts-avg.                   1-41                 6-37.2

Fumbles-lost               3-1                   3-1

Penalties-yards           2-25                 7-55

Solon                          17  13  0  3  –  33

Assumption             0    0   0  7  –   7

SOL – Eddie Johnson 39 run (Ryan Locke kick)

SOL – Maddox Kelley 10 pass from Ty Bell (Locke kick)

SOL – Locke 31 field goal

SOL – Karsyn Regennitter 42 pass from Bell (Locke kick)

SOL – Cole Carney 3 run (Kick failed)

DA – Braylon Thomsen 43 run (Ben Leinart kick)

SOL – Locke 30 field goal

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Solon: Eddie Johnson 13-120, Einar Stecher 7-37, Cole Carney 5-16, Maddox Kelley 2-10, Ty Bell 7-(-25). Assumption: Braylon Thomsen 18-50, Ben Yeggy 8-25, Jonathan Dang 3-9, Graham Woods 6-2, Ben Leinart 1-1, Joe Casel 2-(-5).

PASSING – Solon: Tyler Bell 13-22-0 200. Assumption: Braylon Thomsen 9-23-0 107.

RECEIVING – Solon: Karsyn Regennitter 2-67, Owen Einwalter 2-28, Maddox Kelley 3-28, Eddie Johnson 1-27, Cody Milliman 1-20, Eli Kampman 2-15, Cole Carney 1-15, Trip Johnson 1-0. Assumption: Sinceare Simons 1-43, Brady Curoe 2-18, Ben Leinart 2-18, Braylon Shovlain 2-16, Bru Diaz 1-8, Joe Casel 1-4

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