Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – In the moments after a home match with Class 1A second-ranked Dyersville Beckman Solon head coach Jeremy McMurrin referred to his team’s 1-0 loss a missed opportunity.

Two weeks and six consecutive wins later the Spartans are calling that loss a turning point.

Class 1A fourth-ranked Solon won its sixth straight match since its setback to Beckman on April 11 with a 6-2 win over No. 12 Center Point-Urbana Tuesday at cool and wet Spartan Stadium in Solon.

“That was a reality check for us,” Solon senior Luke Yetley said of the Beckman loss. “We knew after that we couldn’t go out and give half effort and beat teams, we had to go out and give 100 percent against every team we play. That game was a big turning point.”

Jorel Justus scored two of his three goals during a wild second half in which the two teams combined for seven goals as Solon improved to 12-3 and 6-3 in WAMAC matches.

Solon has scored four or more goals four times during its six-match winning streak, outscoring opponents 26-2 during that stretch.

“We just adopted the motto of one game at a time, we don’t want to get a head of ourselves,” McMurrin said. “We’ve given away a couple of games this year that we weren’t happy about and a lot of that was just looking ahead. We just slowed it down and said play every minute for every minute and that has worked well for us.”

Justus gave Solon a lead it would never give up with this first goal of the match midway through the opening quarter though the Stormin’ Pointers certainly made things interesting after halftime.

Luke Yetley beat a defender into the box and found Justus with a cross who put away his team-leading 11th goal of the season to give Solon a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute.

“We were back and forth in the first half for the entire time and we finally put one in,” Yetley said. “It was a huge relief to be honest to get that first goal and get that momentum.”

It stayed 1-0 Spartans until the second half when the two teams were involved in an explosive exchange that featured seven goals in a span of 20 minutes.

Justus scored his second goal of the match on a Gabe Yetley feed to make it 2-0 Solon in the 48th minute.

Solon appeared to seize control two minutes later when Gabe Yetley scored off a Justus assist with 30:51 left in the match.

“I think we are moving the ball around a lot better,” Justus said. “We’ve been running teams to the ground lately and just working them and working them and working them.”

Center Point-Urbana got back in the match when senior Brandon Dreier scored twice in less than a minute on penalty kicks following Solon fouls in the box.

The second PK by Dreier cut the Solon lead to 3-2 with 20:33 left.

Solon bounced back quickly.

Justus scored his third goal of the game just 29 seconds later to push the Solon lead back to 4-2.

“After they got the two PKs coach just told me we had to get the energy back up,” Justus said. “Our heads were kind of down and we got the team back together and scoring that fourth goal really got us back going.”

Gabe Yetley and William Wittich each added goals to cap the Solon scoring as Solon rolled after the Justus goal with 20 minutes left.

“We had to come back and put pressure on right away and regardless of if that ball goes in or not we were right back in their 18 again,” McMurrin said. “The response that way was great and that goal was just icing on the cake.”