Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Third-ranked Solon doesn’t have an offensive player with stats that jump off the page.

There is no 1,000-yard rusher or receiver and no quarterback with huge passing numbers and that is no accident.

In fact, that’s the plan.

“Our entire offense is based on getting multiple guys the ball,” junior quarterback Cam Miller said. “We have a lot of guys that we can spread the ball around to so that’s what we want to do.

The Spartans followed that plan to perfection on Friday night and the result was a second consecutive perfect regular season.

Senior running back Hunter Kula ran for 173 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 carries and Miller threw touchdown passes to four different receivers as Solon (9-0) rolled up a season-high 420 yards of offense in a 57-14 win over Fairfield (4-5) at Spartan Stadium.

The win capped an unbeaten regular season for Solon which secured a home playoff berth with a District 6 title.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Solon coach Kevin Miller said. “We are 9-0 they bought into the process that we have in place they’ve worked exceptionally hard and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Solon has leaned heavily at times on a dominant defense during its second consecutive 9-0 regular season.

In its regular season finale on Friday the Spartans flashed a dangerous and diverse offensive attack.

Kula ripped off a 99-yard touchdown run on the Spartans’ second play from scrimmage igniting a 50-point first half in which Solon scored touchdowns on all seven drives and racked up 358 yards.

“We get momentum after big plays like that,” Kula said. “Big credit to the line they really got us going tonight.”

Solon started its first drive of the game inside its own 1 yard line after a muffed punt return.

Kula barely made it out of his own endzone on a run on the Spartans first play.

On the ensuing play Kula took a shotgun handoff from Miller, broke through a huge hole on the left side of the Spartan offensive line and was never touched.

“A giant hole opened up and I just went for it,” Kula said. “I cut out and I saw the safety was flying over so I just cut the other way and kept going for green.”

The 99-yard touchdown run just more than three minutes into the game opened the offensive floodgates for the Spartans.

Miller threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to AJ Coons on the ensuing possession and Seamus Poynton capped a 6-play, 43-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 22-0 after one quarter.

“That’s how this team is, once we get something positive, we get a big play, a touchdown when we get the momentum rolling we are a really good football team,” Kevin Miller said.

Miller threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Dillon Hoit on a 4th and 9 play and then hit Mason Stahle for a 16-yard scoring strike to make it 36-0.

Kula got the start at running back in replace of Adam Bock who leads the Spartans with 622 yards on the season.

The senior responded with 173 on just 10 carries including a 37-yard scoring run that put Solon up 43-0 with 3:08 left in the opening half.

“He’s electric there is no doubt about it,” Kevin Miller said of Kula. “Whether he is running between the tackles or outside he has that big play ability.”

Kula missed several games with an injury and entered with 404 yards on the season but understands the offense is centered around depth.

“We all spready the love and try to get everyone involved,” Kula said. “That’s just the type of team we have.”

Poynton put Solon up 50-0 at the half when he hauled in a 25-yard touchdown pass from Miller with 19.7 seconds left before halftime.

Miller finished 9-of-14 for 163 yards and four touchdowns as the Solon starters retired after halftime.

The Spartans racked up 195 yards on the ground in the first half while averaging 12.3 yards per offensive play in the opening half.

“We were distributing the ball within our wide receiving corps and the line did a nice job tonight,” Kevin Miller said. Defensively once again we were really good and we know that we are going to have to be even better.”

                             SOL                FAIR

First downs                   14                           7

Rushes-yards            28-216                 28-61

Comp-Att-Int              11-19-1                7-15-0

Passing yards             204                        69

Total yards                   420                       130

Punts-Avg.                   2-35                    6-33.3

Fumbles-lost                1-0                        3-1

Penalties-yards          6-45                      1-5

Solon                         22   28  0   7   –  57

Fairfield                     0     0    7   7   –  14

SOL – Hunter Kula 99 run (Cael O’Neill kick)

SOL – AJ Coons 24 pass from Cam Miller (O’Neill kick)

SOL – Seamus Poynton 1 run (Brady Stotler pass from Poynton)

SOL – Dillon Hoit 17 pass from Miller (Aidan Dall kick)

SOL – Mason Stahle 16 pass from Miller (Dall kick)

SOL – Kula 37 run (O’Neill kick)

SOL – Poynton 25 pass from Miller (O’Neill kick)

FAI – Tristin Waugh 5 run (Landen Schafer)

FAI – Caden Jones 35 pass from Waugh (Schafer)

SOL – True Eidahl 17 run (Dall kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – SOL: Hunter Kula 10-173, True Eidahl 2-17, Seamus Poynton 3-15, Cam Miller 2-7, Bo Janssen 6-5, Thomas Brandt 5-(-1). FAIR: Tristin Waugh 17-85, Noah Stone 1-13, Leone Gichure 3-(-3), Cole Engle 1-(-3), Carter Ferrel 1-(-10), Carson Crile 4-(-19), Team 1-(-1). 

PASSING – SOL: Cam Miller 9-14-0 163, Bo Janssen 2-5-1 41. FAIR: Carson Crile 5-9-0 27, Tristin Waugh 1-4-0 35, Brittan Bowman 1-2-0 7.

RECEIVING – SOL: Seamus Poynton 3-48, AJ Coons 2-44, Dillon Hoit 2-36, Nathan Steffens 1-37, Coal Flansburg 1-19, Mason Stahle 1-16, Matt Rehnke 1-4. FAIR: Carter Ferrel 2-9, Cole Engle 2-8, Landon Kooiker 1-7, Jackson Weaton 1-10, Caden Jones 1-35.

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