Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – A sharp effort early turned into a short night for Solon in its playoff opener on Friday.

Solon scored touchdowns on six consecutive first-half possessions to trigger the continuous clock in the second quarter and rolled to a 50-7 win over Fort Madison (6-4) in a Class 3A opening-round contest on a cool night at Spartan Stadium.

“We prepared all week knowing that the playoffs are a whole different game, a whole different atmosphere,” Solon sophomore running back Conlan Poynton said. “We really had to flip that switch mentally in practice and tonight in the game.”

Poynton rushed for 154 yards and three first-half touchdowns and Tyler Bell tossed touchdown passes to three different receivers in the first half as Solon (9-1) advanced to the 3A quarterfinals with its ninth consecutive win.

A year after falling to rival Mount Vernon in the 3A quarterfinals, Solon will host West Delaware (7-3) in a 3A quarterfinal on Friday at 7 p.m.

“Everybody remembered last year at Mount Vernon and everyone was motivated this playoff season,” Bell said. “We just wanted to get points up there and get through this game and move on to the next round.”

Solon was razor sharp from the opening kick.

Or almost the opening kick.

The Spartans moved to the Fort Madison 26 yard line on the opening possession of the game but Bell had three consecutive incompletions and was sacked on fourth down.

Fort Madison had its only first down of the first half on its first possession but the Solon defense forced a punt.

The Spartan offense rattled off touchdowns on its next six possessions, building a 43-0 halftime lead.

“It’s a gold night and everybody has the first playoff game nerves we got it all out on the first drive and came back and we were dialed in,” Bell said. “We were focused.”

Poynton had first-half touchdown runs of 55, 16 and 15 yards, rushing for 139 yards on 12 carries in the opening half.

Bell threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Brett White, a 3-yarder to junior Oliver Owens and a 9-yard strike to Grant Knipper on a third and goal play.

“It’s the chemistry with the receivers and all these guys,” Bell said. “We’ve been building that chemistry through practice and then our offensive line has been incredible throughout the season so all the credit goes to them.”

Solon forced Fort Madison to go 3-and-out on the opening possession of the second half and the partans went 25-yards in three plays taking a 50-0 lead on a 1-yard touchdown run by Eddie Johnson.

That was it for the Solon starters less than five minutes into the second half.

“I liked the fact we took care of the ball and we executed,” Solon coach Lucas Stanton said. “The execution was really good and that’s what you want to see this time of the year. We were really efficient.”

Bell completed 6-of-10 passes while throwing for 82 yards with Knipper making four catches for 34 yards.

Solon racked up 367 yards of offense while averaging 7.6 yards per carry on Friday.

“That was our thing going in is we have to be locked in mentally,” Stanton said. “A lot of those guys the last two weeks had played a total of one game between Fairfield and South Tama and we practiced a little longer and more physical this week but the key is this is playoff football.”

The Spartans limited Fort Madison to 134 total yards including just 11 yards rushing.

Austin Knight and Charlie Brandt each had interceptions for Solon.

“They were in the 4A playoffs last year so they aren’t unfamiliar with it,” Stanton said. “I think they’ve done a good job of turning some things in that program and we saw some things on film so we knew we were going to get their best shot and we did a good job.

                                      SOL                FM

First downs                17                    6

Rushes-yards             28-194             19-11

Comp-Att-Int             13-20-0           8-19-2

Passing yards             173                  123

Total yards                367                  134

Punts-avg.                  1-20                 5-31.4

Fumbles-lost              0-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards         1-5                   3-15

Fort Madison             0      0    7   0  –   7     

Solon                          22   21   7   0  –  50

SOL – Conlan Poynton 55 run (Grant Knipper kick)

SOL – Brett White 45 pass from Tyler Bell (Knipper run)

SOL – Oliver Owens 3 pass from Bell (Knipper kick)

SOL – Grant Knipper 9 pass from Bell (Knipper kick)

SOL – Poynton 16 run (Knipper kick)

SOL – Poynton 15 run (Knipper kick)

SOL – Eddie Johnson 1 run (Ryan Locke kick)

FM – Hayden Segoviano 1 run (Henry Graham kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING – Solon: Conlan Poynton 13-154, Eddie Johnson 6-24, Grant Knipper 1-21, Tyler Bell 2-4, Nicholas Johnson 1-2, Brayden Miller 3-0, Milo Ashbacker 2-(-5). Fort Madison: Marcus Guzman 11-9, Hayden Segoviano 7-7, Leif Boeding 1-(-5).

PASSING – Solon: Tyler Bell 6-10-0 82, Eli Kampman 7-10-0 91. Fort Madison: Marcus Guzman 8-19-2 123.

RECEIVING – Solon: Grant Knipper 4-34, Jace Janssen 4-31, Brett White 1-45, Keenan Kruse 1-29, Gavin Sieverding 1-20, Charlie Brandt 1-11, Oliver Owens 1-3.

Fort Madison: Leif Boeding 5-117, Henry Morris 1-9, Caleb Bolander 1-0, Hayden Segoviano 1-(-3).

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