Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – With a full regular season and a pair of playoff games under his belt Solon sophomore quarterback Cam Miller is no longer considered a first-year starter.

More importantly Miller isn’t playing like a first-year starter which is big because battles only get bigger for top-ranked Solon (11-0) starting on Thursday with a semifinal tilt with third-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier (11-0).

Miller enters Thursday’s 8:21 p.m. Class 3A semifinal nightcap at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls coming off the best performance of his young career, a 202-yard, two-touchdown passing effort in a 54-14 win over West Delaware.

“We were opportunistic on Friday, we had open guys and he did a great job of identifying those guys and putting the ball where it needed to be,” Solon coach Kevin Miller said. “I was really pleased with his performance but he will be the first to tell you that it starts up front with great protection, guys ran great routes.”

The best performance of Miller’s career will be followed by the toughest test of his time as the Spartan’s starting quarterback.

Miller and the Spartans face a Xavier defense long regarded as one of the state’s best and with the numbers to support that suggestion.

Xavier has limited opponents to 8.4 points and 178 total yards per game this season while bringing a spotless 11-0 record to the state semifinals for the second straight season.

“They are big and physical and they’ve been to the Dome several times in the past years and it’s just going to be a dog fight,” Cam Miller said. “We know it, they know it and its just going to be a battle.”

Kevin Miller has witnessed just how stingy the Saints can be on defense first-hand in the past.

Solon averaged 168 yards and 9.5 points in losses to Xavier in 2014 and 2015.

Players have changed since the teams last meeting, a 22-19 Xavier win in 2015 but Miller expects the same stout, physical Xavier defense to show up on Thursday.

“They don’t change a lot, they always do things the right way,” Miller said. “They don’t give up big plays, they keep things in front of them, they are going to stop the run, they are just stout, they are going to make you earn everything you get on offense.”

In those two losses to Xavier in 2014 and 2015 Solon rushed for a combined 88 yards on 52 carries.

The Spartans have been much better on the ground this season, averaging 214 rushing yards per game and 5.7 yards per carry.

Miller knows the importance of a strong running game but isn’t interested in forcing the run against a Xavier defense giving up 2.7 yards per carry and 76 yards a game on the ground.

“We have struggled with them in the past especially moving the football so we have to be better and we know that we are going to have to open things up a little bit in order to be effective because they do a great job of stopping the run,” Kevin Miller said. “So we are going to have to be balanced in our attack offensively.”

That is where his sophomore quarterback comes in.

Cam Miller has not looked much like a sophomore of late.

The 6-foot, 180-pound Miller has completed 15-of-20 postseason passes for 260 yards and three touchdowns without an interception in wins over Decorah and West Delaware.

Now the sophomore gets a chance to measure himself against one of the best defenses in the state.

“They are a great team,” Cam Miller said. “We see them as a big physical team and most teams don’t want to play them but we want to play them. Those are the types of teams we want to play.”

Miller has weapons at his disposal in the pass game, namely sophomore AJ Coons and senior Payton Bandy.

The 6-foot-3 Coons has caught 23 passes for a team-high 552 yards and eight touchdowns but like Miller has been at his best in the postseason.

Coons has caught four passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns over the past two weeks despite less than ideal weather conditions.

“I think their defense is really good and we look forward to that challenge,” Coons said. “Playing a great team like them we are excited to see what we can do.”