MOUNT VERNON - When you’re number one, your defense gets an early turnover that leads to a touchdown. When you’re number one, you block a punt early that leads to another touchdown.
When you’re number one, you move the football offensively on the ground and through the air with fairly equal aplomb.
When you’re number one, you put a beatdown on your biggest rival. Make that another beatdown.
Solon is that number one, the top-ranked team in Class 3A, and, other than a couple of minor glitches here and there, looked very much the part in a 41-7 win over Mount Vernon in the latest edition of this Highway 1 showdown Friday night.
“I definitely liked the way we started,” said Solon Coach Lucas Stanton. “Going into this, I told them that we’ve just got to establish our physicality and our athleticism right off the bat. So I liked that.”
The Spartans are 3-0 and have outscored their first three opponents by a total of 131-21. Is that good?
They’ll be highly favored in their remaining six regular-season games: one more non-conference affair against Benton Community, then five district games. Duh, they are number one.
“There is still a lot to work on, obviously,” said Solon’s Owen Bock, who had seven receptions for 173 yards and two touchdowns. “Like keeping that scoreboard to zero (points against). But we work really had every practice, the coaches do a great job of coaching us up and getting the most value out of every practice. We work really hard going at each other. Just our competitiveness really helps us get wins.”
Mount Vernon (2-1) incurred the aforementioned turnover on the second play of the game, being a botched pitch play recovered by Maddox Kelley. He’d end up scoring a couple plays later on a 13-yard touchdown run.
A wide receiver last season, the junior has made a seamless transition to quarterback. He ran for 77 yards and threw for 221 and three TDs: two to Bock (including a 70-yarder on a nifty pump-and-go route) and one to Kaden Hoeper.
“We saw coming into this game that their defense liked to play a lot of man,” Kelley said. “We knew with our wide receivers that we could take advantage of that. And we did.”
“Our coaches do a great job of breaking down the defense,” Bock said. “Everyone is ready to step up. They have to choose one of us to guard, and the coaches do a great job of getting us open. Anyone can step each week. It’s just awesome.”
Collin McKie had two made field goals for Solon, which grabbed a 24-0 halftime lead. Solon leads the all-time series now 39-31. It goes back to 1962.
It also has won 18 of the last 20 games since 2008, with the winning streak at four. Mount Vernon (2-1) will need to pick up the pieces and make sure this one doesn’t linger into next week as it travels south for its final non-conference game against Fort Madison.
The Mustangs avoided the shutout with a 43-yard TD pass from Noah Olsen to Holden Hlavacek in the fourth quarter. Olsen and fellow junior Easton Reasland split series in the game.
SOLON 41, MOUNT VERNON 7
(At Mount Vernon)
Solon 14 10 14 3-41
Mount Vernon 0 0 0 7- 7
Team Statistics
First Downs - Solon 14, Mount Vernon 11. Rushes-Yards - Solon 26-139, Mount Vernon 36-113. Passing - Solon 15-21-1-256, Mount Vernon 8-13-0-113. Total Yards - Solon 395, Mount Vernon 217. Punts-Average - Solon 0-0, Mount Vernon 4-23.5. Penalties - Solon 5-40, Mount Vernon 4-40. Fumbles-Lost - Solon 0-0, Mount Vernon 1-1.
Individual Statistics
Solon - Rushing: Maddox Kelley 11-77, Jackson Burk 9-55, Foster Owens 1-3, Greyson Burg 3-2, Grant Milliman 1-1, Ryder Laing 1-1. Passing: Maddox Kelley 11-15-0-231, Ryder Laing 4-6-1-25. Receiving: Owen Bock 7-173, Kaden Hoeper 2-40, Cody Milliman 2-14, Paxton Holtkamp 1-14, Mitchell Bigelow 3-11, Wyatt Young 1-4.
Mount Vernon - Rushing: Jakob Yock 22-85, Easton Reasland 8-29, Eli Casey 1-19, Holden Hlavacek 1-6, Luke Robinson 1-(minus) 3, Noah Olsen 3-(minus) 23. Passing: Noah Olsen 5-8-0-84, Easton Reasland 3-5-0-30. Receiving: Owen Hlavacek 2-58, Graham Yanda 2-13, Jakob Yock 1-12, Eli Casey 1-10, Tysen Zacharakis-Jutz 1-10, Andrew Dix 1-1.