The Solon student section broke into chants of “overrated” and “who’s your daddy?” in the fourth quarter.
So … not great.
No. 4 Solon knocked off No. 1 Mount Vernon, 35-20, on Friday, Sept. 12, at Spartan Stadium.
“That’s always tough,” Mount Vernon senior Mikey Ryan said. “Losing to them and just losing in general.”
And there’s a ton of history in this Hwy. 1 rivalry, too. Solon had a 19-game win streak that Mount Vernon ended in 2022 with wins in the regular season and the playoffs.
But now the Spartans have built a new three-game win streak.
“I’m a little bummed,” sophomore Holden Hlavacek said. “I know we’re a good group and we’ll bounce back.”
Last season the Mustangs lost to the Spartans but won their district and made it to the UNI-Dome (3A semifinals).
“Last year we turned it around,” Mount Vernon coach Brad Meester said. “We kept grinding and kept working. We’ve got a long time until the postseason. We’ve just got to work each day, get better at the little things.”
There will be plenty of corrections to make. The Spartans outgained the Mustangs 429 yards to 264. And Mount Vernon only had 45 yards of offense at halftime.
“They did a nice job of moving the ball, and we just didn’t get it going at first,” Meester said.
The first Mustang drive started on their own six and yielded minus 3 yards. Solon took over at the MV 43, and senior quarterback Eli Kampman ran for 22, 12 and 3 yards, to set up a 6-yard TD by junior Maddox Kelley.
Kampman finished with 120 rushing yards and 192 passing yards.
“He’s a good athlete,” Ryan said. “He’s fast, he’s big, he likes to run. He can throw it too. It is his first time paying quarterback, but you couldn’t tell. He just got the better of us today.”
Kelly added 109 rushing yards on 14 carries. Owen Bock caught four passes for 108 yards.
“They are good. They are not ranked No. 4 for no reason,” Ryan said.
It seemed like the game might be a shootout when Hlavacek took the ensuing kickoff back the other way for a 93-yard touchdown.
The sophomore was replacing senior Jase Jaspers, who was hurt in Week 2 and on crutches Friday. Meester said Jaspers is likely out for the season.
“That’s a hard one,” Meester said. “But we’ve got a lot of guys stepping up. But obviously, there’s a learning curve, too.”
For Hlavacek, who had not returned kicks before, it was a pretty good learning curve.
“I was a little bit scared,” Hlavacek said. “I just ran, and didn’t slow down until I got to the end zone.”
The next Solon drive made it to the red zone, but ended when senior Caleb Keegan hopped on a fumble in the backfield.
But the next two Solon drives went for scores. Kampman found junior Kaden Hoeper for a 31-yard TD catch and Kelley for an 8-yard TD catch.
It was 21-7 at halftime.
Mount Vernon put together an impressive 14-play drive coming out of intermission. But it stalled, and Solon made it 28-7 after a 15-play drive that was capped by a Kelly 4-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.
Mustang QB Kellen Haverback started to air it out, connecting with senior Toby Neal on a 47-yard TD pass.
Then, sophomore Jack Carnes kicked an onside attempt that was recovered by sophomore Ryan Hepker.
Haverback converted a fourth-and-9 with a 17-yard pass to Ryan, but a fumble on the next play halted the drive, and any Mustang comeback momentum.
Kampman put it out of reach with a short slant pass that Bock took 77 yards to paydirt with 4:40 left to play.
Mount Vernon added a touchdown in the final minute on a Haverback sneak to provide the final margin, 35-20.
Haverback finished with 250 yards on 23-of-37 passing. The Mustangs only had 28 yards on the ground.
Mount Vernon (2-1) hosts Fort Madison (0-3) in their final non-district game on Friday, Sept. 19, at the Martha Parsons Activities Complex.
“Obviously, it sucks to lose, but in the grand scheme of things, everything else is still in front of us,” Ryan said.