Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Over the past several weeks Solon has found its formula for football success.

Play great defense and be opportunistic on offense.

That method hasn’t always been aesthetically pleasing and that stats have been a little ugly at times but the results for the Spartans have been a thing of beauty.

Solon used another defensive masterpiece to pull off its biggest win yet on Friday stretching its winning streak to six with a 21-14 upset of Class 3A top-ranked Williamsburg on a chilly night at Spartan Stadium in Solon.

“We know it isn’t always pretty but we know our team and we know our kids and they’ve embraced it,” Solon coach Lucas Stanton said. “It’s frustrating at times but we’ve done a really good job of establishing our identity. If we take care of the ball our defense will create opportunities.”

Last week Solon overcame five turnovers in a 16-13 double overtime win over Benton Community.

On Friday the Spartans completed one pass, had two muffed punts lead to lost fumbles, went 3-and-out eight times and punted 11 times.

Despite all that Solon improved to 6-1 and moved alone into first place in Class 3A, District 5 at 3-0 by handing Williamsburg (6-1, 5-1) just its second loss in its last 20 games.

“We know how we play and it works for us,” Solon senior linebacker Brett White said. “Our defense played really good today, I was really impressed but we pick each other up. We had guys that made big plays tonight.”

Senior linebacker Barret Schade returned a fumble 59 yards for a touchdown as Solon forced four turnovers while snapping a 19-game regular season winning streak for Williamsburg.

Four different Spartan defenders came up with turnovers, including two that set up touchdowns as Solon handed Williamsburg its first regular season loss since defeating the Raiders 28-14 at Spartan Stadium in September 10 of 2021.

“That was our message in our pregame, our guest speaker in pregame asked them who was going to win the game,” Stanton said. “At some point when you are on the field you have to think that you are going to win the game for your team and that was the case. A lot of different guys stepped up.”

It was a defensive slugfest filled with wild momentum swings from the beginning.

Solon twice muffed first-quarter punts that set Williamsburg up inside the Spartan 30 yard line.

Williamsburg converted the second fumbled punt in a touchdown when Clayten Steckly snagged an 8-yard touchdown pass from Kellen Cockrell on a fourth-and-two play to give the Raiders an early 7-0 lead.

Solon pulled even less than three minutes later with the first of several huge defensive plays.

On a fourth down play from the Spartan 28 yard line White came on an outside blitz and sacked Cockrell knocking the ball free.

“I just saw him running,” White said. “I hit the quarterback and I saw the ball on the ground and Barret was right there and then all I saw was him running.”

Schade scooped up the loose ball and went 59-yard untouched to tie the game with 1:18 remaining in the opening quarter.

“It was a blitz play we run and I saw the quarterback get hit and I saw the ball on the ground,” Schade said. “I was able to scoop it up and I ran as fast as I could. I didn’t want to get caught from behind.”

That was just the start for the Solon defense.

Senior safety Jack McCarty picked off a Derek Weisskopf pass with under two minutes to play in the first half.

Five plays later Tyler Bell rifled a pass just by a Williamsburg defender to Eddie Johnson who raced 40 yards to the Raider 1 yard line with 6.7 seconds remaining in the half.

Conlan Poynton scored on a 1-yard run on the next play to give Solon a 14-7 halftime lead.

“We had run that play once and it was there but Ty got sacked and we came back to it when we needed it,” Johnson said. “It went right past his hands and I just had to finish the play.”

Williamsburg tied the game on its opening drive of the second half when Steckly made a brilliant diving catch of a Weisskopf pass for a 28-yard touchdown.

The next eight drives for both teams produced more punts (6) than first downs (3) and included two more Solon takeaways.

The big turnover for the Spartans came early in the fourth quarter when junior defensive back Cole Carney stepped in front of a Weisskopf pass for an interception at the Raider 13 yard line.

“Early in the first half they ran that same play and got us for like an eight-yard gain and we went over it at halftime and they ran the same play in the second half and I happened to be there,” Carney said. “Threw it right too me.”

Four plays later Johnson plunged into the end zone from a yard out to give Solon a 21-14 lead it would never give up.

“We’d been running that play all night,” Johnson said. “I knew we could get it I just had to follow my blockers.”

Solon would need one more defensive stop late to seal the win after Weisskopf blocked a Solon punt to set the Raiders at the Solon 27 yard line with 4:13 remaining.

Williamsburg had a first down at the Spartan 12 but on fourth down Schade batted down a pass to stop the threat.

“It’s awesome to see everyone making plays,” White said. “Barret is a really good player and he doesn’t get a lot of credit, he’s a little in the shadows so it’s awesome to see him doing big things.”

Solon forced four turnovers and held Williamsburg to 161 total yards on Friday including just 27 rushing yards on 26 carries.

A Williamsburg offense that entered averaging 7.8 yards per play averaged just 2.5 yards per snap on Friday.

“We really focused first on shutting down the run,” Johnson said. “We thought if we could get pressure on the quarterback we could slow down their passing game and that worked. Our corners player outstanding.”

Poynton rushed for 136 yards and a touchdown for Solon on 26 carries with 86 of his yards coming in the second half.

Solon travels to Fairfield (3-4) next week and hosts South Tama (0-7) in its regular season finale.

                                      WIL                SOL

First downs                10                    10

Rushes-yards             26-27               46-166

Comp-Att-Int            15-38-2           1-7-0

Passing yards             134                  40

Total yards                161                  206

Punts-avg.                  6-32.5              11-22.5

Fumbles-lost              2-2                   2-2

Penalties-yards          2-10                 5-42

Williamsburg             7  0  7  0  –  14

Solon                              7  7  0  7  –  21

WIL – Clayten Steckly 8 pass from Kellen Cockrell (Logan Rethwisch kick)

SOL – Barret Schade 59 fumble return (Grant Knipper kick)

SOL – Conlan Poynton 1 run (Knipper kick)

WIL – Steckly 28 pass from Derek Weisskopf (Rethwisch kick)

SOL – Eddie Johnson 1 run (Knipper kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Solon: Conlan Poynton 27-136, Eddie Johnson 10-28, Milo Ashbacker 1-2, Tyler Bell 8-0. Williamsburg: Nile Sinn 14-33, Derek Weisskopf 8-10, Cael Moore 1-1, Rayce Heitman 1-(-2), Braylon Wetjen 1-(-2), Kellen Cockrell 1-(-13).

PASSING – Solon: Tyler Bell 1-7-0 40. Williamsburg: Kellen Cockrell 6-15-0 31, Derek Weisskopf 9-23-2 103.

RECEIVING – Solon: Eddie Johnson 1-40. Williamsburg: Clayten Steckly 7-103, Braylon Wetjen 3-7, Rayce Heitman 2-12, Nile Sinn 2-8, Cael Moore 1-4.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.