Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Defense has deservedly dominated the discussions surrounding Solon football this season.

For 10 weeks Solon head coach Kevin Miller has told anyone that would listen his team was full of offensive playmakers.

On Friday the state got to see what Miller kept talking about.

Top-ranked Solon rolled up 469 yards of offense and had seven different players score touchdowns in a 54-14 win over West Delaware (8-3) in a Class 3A quarterfinal at Spartan Stadium.

“I’ve told you multiple times that on any given night we can have different guys step up,” Miller said. “We have a number of guys that can make plays and that was evident tonight.”

Sophomore quarterback Cam Miller threw for 202 yards and two touchdowns and five different Spartans ran for touchdowns as Solon (11-0) advanced to the 3A semifinals for the first time since 2013.

Solon will face third-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier (11-0) at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls on Thursday at 8:21 p.m.

“It’s huge, we’ve dreamed about this,” Solon senior Kendrick Harris said. “We watched all those Solon teams back in the day go to the Dome and win and that’s what we are hoping to do.”

Solon had its usual dominant defensive performance on Friday, forcing three turnovers and holding West Delaware to 67 first-half yards while taking a 35-0 halftime lead.

However, it was the Solon offense that stood out on Friday, scoring four touchdowns on plays of 39 yards or longer.

“We all played well and we all did our job, when we do that this is what happens,” Cam Miller said. “We’ve been practicing big plays and we executed them tonight. “

 

Miller completed 9-of-10 passes and threw touchdown passes of 58-yards to AJ Coons and 39-yards to Ben Krutzfeldt.

Solon had three players with more than 50 yards rushing, led by junior Adam Bock with 112, while rolling up 267 yards on the ground.

Harris rushed for 74 yards and a score, Hunter Kula had 52 yards rushing and a touchdown and 230-pound junior Coal Flansburg scored twice on touchdown runs.

“I thought we were balanced, we did what the defense gave us,” Kevin Miller said. “Whether it was the short game, the vertical game or running the ball. That was certainly one of our better offensive performances of the season no question.”

The Spartans were as explosive as they were efficient with five touchdown drives of three or fewer plays.

Solon scored touchdowns on eight of 10 possessions, including each of its last six, and averaged better than 10.4 yards per play.

“Week by week we find different things that are working and we keep piecing it together,” Bock said. “I think it showed this week that we are running well now.”

Solon took a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game when Miller hit Coons on a slant pattern on third down and the sophomore receiver broke a tackle and went 58 yards to the end zone.

The Spartans then put the game out of reach with 28 second-quarter points.

Flansburg made it 14-0 when he capped a 5-play, 26-yard drive set up by a short West Delaware punt with a 6-yard touchdown run on a direct snap.

Following a three-and-out by the Hawks, Harris went 48-yard untouched down the sideline for a touchdown that put Solon up 21-0 with 9:06 left in the first half.

“They were expecting us to go left and we caught them off guard,” Harris said. “It was wide open because of all the great blocking by our line.”

Solon put the game out of reach with a pair of touchdowns in a span of 62 seconds to close the half.

A 55-yard pass from Miller to Coons on a hitch and go set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Flansburg to make it 28-0.

On the second play of the ensuing drive Tyler Linderbaum pounced on a West Delaware fumble at the Hawk 38 yard line.

Two plays later Miller hit a wide open Krutzfeldt for a 39-yard touchdown and a 35-0 halftime lead.

“That was huge,” Bock said. “It’s huge going into halftime with that kind of leading knowing that you can come out and play defense and win the game.”

Kula scored on a 17-yard touchdown run, Bock had a 60-yard touchdown run and Mason Stahle a 1-yard run in the second half.

“Everybody has a set of skills that we can use and everyone contributes to the team,” Bock said. “That is a great quality to have.”

The two lone remaining unbeaten teams in Class 3A will meet in the semifinals when Solon and Cedar Rapids Xavier meet in the UNI-Dome.

The Spartans are seeking their first title game appearance since winning the 3A title in 2010.

“I’m just happy for our kids,” Kevin Miller said. “They put in a lot of time, we expect a lot of our kids and now for them to reap the rewards of all that hard work is very gratifying.”

                                   SOL                WD

First Downs               14                    15

Rushes-Yards            35-267             34-149

Comp-Att-Int                9-10-0             10-20-1

Passing Yards            202                  86

Punts-Avg.                  2-22.5              5-35.2

Fumbles-Lost              1-0                   4-2

Penalties-Yards          5-43                 1-5

Solon                           7   28    13    6  –  54 

West Delaware            0    0     14    0  –  14

SOL – AJ Coons 58 pass from Cam Miller (Aidan Dall kick)  

SOL – Coal Flansburg 6 run (Dall kick)

SOL – Kendrick Harris 48 run (Dall kick)

SOL – Flansburg 3 run (Dall kick)

SOL – Ben Krutzfeldt 39 pass from Miller (Dall kick)

SOL – Hunter Kula 17 run (Kick failed)

WD – Mitchel Mangold 23 pass from Nick Casey (Caleb Zehr kick)

SOL – Adam Bock 60 run (Dall kick)

WD – Caleb Kehrli 3 run (Zehr kick)

SOL – Mason Stahle 1 run (Kick failed)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – SOL: Adam Bock 5-112, Kendrick Harris 8-74, Hunter Kula 9-52, Coal Flansburg 5-24, Mason Stahle 4-16, Cam Miller 3-(-6), Team 1-(-5). WD: Caleb Kehrli 14-101, Jordan Bries 15-61, Mitchel Mangold 2-(-4), Nick Casey 3-(-9).

PASSING – SOL: Cam Miller 9-10-0 202. WD: Nick Casey 10-20-1 86.

RECEIVING – SOL: AJ Coons 2-113, Payton Bandy 3-9, Adam Bock 2-19, Kendrick Harris 1-22, Ben Krutzfeldt 1-39. WD: Mitchel Mangold 5-53, Tyler Kelley 2-16, Kabryn Cook 2-16, Logan Winn 1-1.