Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Over the course of his prep career Blake Timmons has accounted for more than 70 touchdowns and played in seven playoff games.

One thing the Solon senior has learned about postseason football.

When it comes to playoff time it’s a lot more about stopping touchdowns than scoring them.

“When it comes to this time of year, playoff football, defense is where it all starts,” Timmons said. “If our defense is flying around and doing their job that is ultimately what wins championships.”

Timmons and his Solon teammates have a ways to go before they are playing for a champions but the Spartan defense was certainly playoff ready on Friday.

Solon forced four turnovers, scoring on one and another led directly to a touchdown in a 42-18 win over West Delaware (5-5) on Friday in a Class 3A opening-round contest at Spartan Field in Solon.

“We all look forward to the defense leading our team,” Solon senior linebacker Mac McCarty said. “We know the offense will follow it up and we’ll play all the way around but the defense is what leads us.”

Timmons returned an interception 20 yards for a touchdown and McCarty returned another pick 41 yards to the one yard line as Solon improved to 8-2 with its seventh consecutive win.

Solon rolled up 266 rushing yards and got touchdown runs from five different players while advancing to the 3A quarterfinals for the third consecutive season.

Seventh-ranked Solon will travel to second-ranked Mount Vernon (10-0) on Friday for a rematch of a week two matchup won by the Mustangs 17-14.

“At this time of the year if you want to go to the places you want to go you have to play great defense and you have to be able to the run the football,” Solon coach Lucas Stanton said. “I think we were pretty good in those areas tonight.”

Solon jumped to a 21-0 halftime lead.

The Spartans started the scoring with an eight-play, 66-yard drive that was capped by a 9-yard touchdown run by Brayden Moore with 3:50 left in the opening quarter.

Timmons and junior linebacker Brett White each had interceptions in the first half that stopped West Delaware drives.

Leading 7-0 early in the second quarter Timmons gave Solon a two-touchdown cushion when he stepped in front of a Brent Yonkovic pass and returned it 20 yards for a score.

“That play we watched on film countless times this week and we knew that we had a little change up in our coverage and if they ran that play I would be there,” Timmons said. “Coach did a great job of pointing it out and it ended up happening that way.”

White made it 21-0 Spartans at the half with a 30-yard touchdown run with 3:59 left in the second quarter.

McCarty gave the Spartans a 28-0 cushion when he picked off a Yonkovic pass on the fourth play of the second half and returned it 41 yards to the one yard line.

“That’s one of the things we saw in film study is they run a lot of out routes,” McCarty said. “I was just lucky I was in the right place at the right time I just couldn’t bring it home.”

The senior scored on a 1-yard run on the next play to give Solon a 28-0 lead less than two minutes into the second half.

“Coach came up to me and asked if I wanted to take it in,” McCarty said. “I said, ‘if you give me the opportunity I’ll get it in’.”

West Delaware made it a game with a pair of third-quarter touchdowns that cut the lead to 28-12 but Solon answered.

The Spartans stopped West Delaware tailback Will Ward for a loss on a fourth and 1 play from the Solon 18 yard line.

On the next play Timmons sprinted 80 yards for a touchdown on an option keep and Solon led 35-12 with 4:07 left in the game.

“They had some big runs and got a couple of touchdowns but I loved our response to that,” Stanton said. “Our kids never panicked and came out and got a huge fourth-down stop.”

The win came after Solon earned a 23-19 victory at West Delaware in the 3A quarterfinals last season.

It sets up a rematch with Mount Vernon which defeated Central DeWitt 23-9 in an opening-round contest on Friday.

“We played them at their place last year and that was a big win for us and we knew they were going to come back and punch us hard and they did a couple of times I’ll give them credit for that,” McCarty said. “Luckily we kicked it into gear.”

                                                SOL               WD

First Downs                           13                    16

Rushes-yards                         35-266             49-207

Comp-Att-Int                        8-13-1             12-24-4

Passing yards                        56                    164

Total yards                            322                  371

Punts-Avg.                             3-42.3              1-35

Fumbles-lost                          1-1                   1-0

Penalties-yards                      4-40                 6-45

West Delaware                      0   0   12  0  –  18

Solon                                       7  14   7  14 –  42

SOL – Brayden Moore 9 run (Grant Knipper kick)

SOL – Blake Timmons 20 interception return (Knipper kick)

SOL – Brett White 30 run (Knipper kick)

SOL – Mac McCarty 1 run (Knipper kick)

WD – Brent Yonkovic 3 run (Kick blocked)

WD – Logan Peyton 2 run (Run failed)

SOL – Timmons 80 run (Knipper kick)

SOL – Brayden Ruskey 13 run (Knipper kick)

WD – Conrad Smith 20pass from Yonkovic (Kick blocked)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – SOL: Blake Timmons 15-157, Brett White 3-50, Eddie Johnson 7-30, Brayden Moore 3-13, Brayden Ruskey 1-13, Barret Schade 3-3, Mac McCarty 1-1, Sean Stahle 2-(-1). WD: Brent Yonkovic 20-122, Will Ward 17-55, Logan Peyton 10-35, Team 2-(-5).

PASSING – SOL: Blake Timmons 8-13-1 56. WD: Brent Yonkovic 12-24-4 164

RECEIVING – SOL: Sean Stahle 4-38, Oaken Foster 2-11, Cole Buffington 1-8, Eddie Johnson 1-(-1). WD: Conrad Smith 5-59, Will Ward 4-64, Logan Peyton 2-24, Cash Hauser 1-17

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