SOLON — The 2022 varsity football season officially starts Friday, August 26, or “Week One” of a nine-week regular season. Many teams however got an unofficial start Friday, August 19, with “Week Zero” scrimmage games including the Spartans, who hosted Linn-Mar for roughly an hour of football before impending storms ended the evening.
Solon, in Class 3A District 5, went 11-1 last season while the Class 5A District 5 Lions were 7-3 battling teams such as Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Prairie Cedar Rapids, SE Polk, Waterloo West, and falling 38-13 in the first round of the playoffs to West Des Moines Dowling Catholic. Dowling ended up falling to SE Polk in the quarterfinals. The bottom line, it was going to be a good test for the Spartans.
“We definitely were happy to get the scrimmage in as the weather was a question all day,” said Coach Lucas Stanton. “We felt like we saw more good than bad. (We) Still need to make some big improvements this week. It was really good to go against someone else, our kids needed it. It is a great evaluation tool to see where we are as a team and for players as individuals to see themself on film. It gives us a great opportunity to drive home some coaching points.”
Under the scrimmage format each team had a series of ten offensive plays, starting at the 35-yard line, before possession changed. The Spartans had the first possession and opened with a touchdown pass from Blake Timmons to Oaken Foster.
“Offensively it was nice to see them get us off to such a great start with a touchdown on the first play of the night. It was a team effort starting with our offensive line protection, then our wide receiver (Foster) and quarterback (Timmons) executing their job,” said Stanton. Overall, the coach was pleased with how the team performed. “I thought we ran to the football well and our pass game looked much improved.” But added, “We need to continue to work on the little things on both sides of the ball in order to be where we want to be.”
The Spartans open the season on the road at West Liberty. Last year Solon shelled the Comets 63-0, but Stanton and his team are taking nothing for granted.
“West Liberty didn’t have their scrimmage so we don’t have any scouting reports or film for them other than what we have from last year. This is a great week anyway for us to really just drive home focusing on ourselves and improving each and every day. We have an idea of what they will do and be in but we have to be ready to adapt a little if needed. The main thing is that we want to be better this Friday than we were last Friday.”
The coach said he was pleased with the Spartans’ attitude, effort, and execution against the Lions. “A lot of kids got reps and made the most out of those reps,” he said. “Sure, we had some mistakes but we would rather those happen in that type of setting than in an actual game. The key is now we go watch the film, learn from it, and get better.”
The sophomore game is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. with the varsity to follow at 7:30 p.m. at West Liberty High School. The Spartans return home on Friday, Sept. 2 to host rival Mount Vernon.
Linn-Mar’s James Bouska zeros in on Sean Stahle during a Week Zero scrimmage Friday, August 19 in Solon.