Solon blasts West Delaware in 3A quarterfinals, 54-14

SOLON - The defense has been outstanding all season for the Solon football team.

The offense is pretty darn good as well.

Coach Kevin Miller's team turned to the big play Friday night in their Class 3A quarterfinal against West Delaware at Spartan Stadium.

Solon had three scoring plays of 39 yards or longer en route to building a 35-0 halftime lead and went on to cruise to a 54-14 victory over the Hawks.

Next up for the No. 3 Spartans (11-0) is a semifinal match-up at 8:20 p.m. Thursday against No. 1 Cedar Rapids Xavier. The Saints advanced with a 44-21 win over Davenport Assumption in Cedar Rapids.

West Delaware finishes its season at 8-3.

Coach Miller liked what he saw on offense. His son, sophomore quarterback Cam Miller completed 9 of 10 passes for 203 yards and a pair of scores.

'What we have lacked at times this year has been consistency on offense,” Coach Miller said. 'Tonight, we were more consistent. I thought we were balanced and took what the defense gave us.”

Cam Miller was on target from the start. His first pass of the night was a slant to fellow sophomore AJ Coons, who broke a tackle and went the distance for a 58-yard score.

'We always think big plays first,” Cam Miller said. '(The TD pass to Coons) was huge, it was just huge. It was really big to get off to a fast start like that and move on from there.”

Solon did move on. Coal Flansburg had a pair of short TD runs sandwiched around a 48-yard scoring burst from Kendrick Harris. Cam Miller finished off the half with a beautiful pass down the middle to Ben Krutzfeldt for a 39-yard score, putting the Spartans up 35-0 at the half.

West Delaware did manage a pair of third quarter touchdowns, the first time a team has scored more than seven points in a game against Solon this season.

Hunter Kula, Adam Bock and Mason Stahle each had a TD run in the second half for Solon. Bock's was a fullback burst right up the middle for 60 yards. He finished with 114 yards rushing on just six carries.

'This was a great win, but we left some plays out there on the field,” Coach Miller said. 'We'll have to clean that up for our next game.”

That will come against top-ranked Xavier next Thursday.

'We just going to have to play our game,” Cam Miller said. 'We know they are going to play their game so we'll just have to see who comes out on top.”