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SOLON – Beginning in the offseason Lucas Stanton has stressed to his Solon football team the importance of responding positively to adverse circumstances.

Before the season could even get underway on Friday the Spartans found themselves facing with the type of potential setback their head coach had warned would arise.

Solon weathered more than an hour lightning delay on Friday and pulled away from Davenport Assumption in a 36-13 win over the Knights in the season opener for both teams at Spartan Stadium in Solon.

“That’s been one of our things all year going back to the offseason is we are going to have tons of events every day, every practice every game that are out of our control and we have to have a championship response to that,” Stanton said. “Every team faces those but the best teams have the best responses to that. The guys knew it was that type of moment and took the challenge and responded really well obviously.”

A passing storm delayed the start of Friday’s opener by more than an hour but couldn’t slow the Solon offense.

Just three plays after the game finally kicked off at 8:40 p.m. Eli Kampman connected with Kade Hoeper for a 73-yard touchdown pass.

“The whole preseason coach emphasized our response to different events,” Hoeper said. “I feel like our response coming out was really good.”

Kampman threw five touchdowns passes in his first career start at quarterback, two to Hoeper and three to Maddox Kelley, as Solon defeated Davenport Assumption in the season opener for the second consecutive season.

“It feels great but it’s just a building block,” Kampman said. “We are taking more steps from here.”

Kampman completed 15-of-25 passes for 272 yards and also rushed for 37 yards as Solon racked up 381 total yards.

“First and foremost his leadership was really good right off the bat and he just stayed composed the whole game,” Stanton said of Kampman. “He never got too high, he never got too low he made great decisions and he ran the ball a little bit. He was exactly what we thought he would be and he’s just going to continue to grow with every game he gets under his belt.”

Solon led 15-13 late in the first half before closing the game with 21 unanswered points.

Hoeper picked off a pass to set up a Kampman 8-yard touchdown pass to Kelley with 28 seconds remaining in the first half.

“It feels great to finally get out there and show what I can do,” Hoeper said. “It was amazing.”

Hoeper gave Solon a 29-13 lead with an 80-yard touchdown with 4:09 remaining in the first quarter.

The junior finished with five receptions for 174 yards and two touchdowns.

“He’s a beast, he’s unstoppable,” Kampman said of Hoeper. “He’s going to be a force.”

Kelley caught nine passes for 84 yards and three touchdowns and had an interception.

Kyler Jensen led Solon with nine tackles including two tackles for loss while Cody Milliman had 5.5 tackles and Simon Einwalter had 1.5 tackles for loss.

Luis Buck rushed for 30 yards and Einar Stecher added 20 yards on the ground for Solon.

SOL                DA

First downs                17                    18

Rushes-yards             23-109             39-256

Comp-Att-Int            15-25-0           11-16-2

Passing yards             272                  67

Total yards                381                  323

Punts-Avg.                 2-34                 3-27                

Fumbles-lost              0-0                   2-0

Penalties-yards          4-32                 1-15

Davenport Assumption        7   6   0  0  –  13

Solon                                             8  14  7  7  –  36

SOL – Kaden Hoeper 73 pass from Eli Kampman (Kampman run)

DA – Lane Pennington 1 run (Ben Leinart kick)

SOL – Maddox Kelley 11 pass from Kampman (Ryan Locke kick)

DA – Luke Jobgen 39 run (Kick failed)

SOL – Kelley 8 pass from Kampman (Locke kick)

SOL – Hoeper 80 pass from Kampman (Locke kick)

SOL – Kelley 8 pass from Kampman (Locke kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – SOL: Eli Kampman 9-36, Luis Buck 5-30, Ryan Locke 1-24, Einar Stecher 7-20, Brady White 1-(-1). DA: Graham Woods 17-94, Luke Jobgen 10-84, Lane Pennington 9-41, Brody Robertson 3-37

PASSING – SOL: Eli Kampman 15-25-0 272. DA: Luke Jobgen 11-16-2 67.

RECEIVING – SOL: Kaden Hoeper 5-174, Maddox Kelley 9-84, Cody Milliman 1-14. DA: Brody Robertson 7-35, Graham Woods 1-18, Peter Miller 2-13, Luke Argo 1-1.

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