Flannigan burns Vianney for four touchdowns

KIRKWOOD, Mo. — Fayetteville went into its season opener with a clear vision of what it wanted to do offensively.

The plan was to spread St. John Vianney’s defense to the boundaries, then give receiver Connor Flannigan free rein over everything in the middle.

“We were trying to make those dudes run,” Bulldogs coach Billy Dawson said. “We were trying to spread the ball around sideline to sideline, make them run around a little bit. We did a nice job of that.”

Flannigan caught 13 passes for 311 yards and four first- half touchdowns as the Bulldogs ran away with a 51-28 road victory over the Griffins on Friday night in the season opener.

Nearly all of Flannigan’s damage came in the first half, including three touchdowns in the span of 6 minutes, 37 seconds in the second quarter, after Vianney (0-1) took a 20-14 lead.

Flannigan scored on passes of 10, 67, 76 and 32 yards from quarterback Darius Bowers, who finished the night 23-of-27 for 404 yards and five touchdowns for Fayetteville (1-0).

All of the big hitters came on fairly simple crossing patterns. Then it was off to the races.

“We knew that they were

going to leave the middle of the field open, and that’s where we attacked first,” Flannigan said. “When they went man, we felt like we were able to exploit that and get them on their heels a little bit. We got on them fast and kept the momentum up.”

For about a quarter and a half, Vianney’s offense looked as if it could keep up, thanks mostly to Notre Dame commit and allaround headache for a defensive coordinator Kyren Williams.

Williams started the scoring off with a 14-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, answered Fayetteville’ first score with a 65- yard touchdown catch and run on a swing pass to the right flat from Griffins quarterback Griffin John, then scored on a 53-yard run out of Wildcat formation on a fourth-andone to put Vianney up 20-14 with 7:44 left in the first half.

Then Flannigan and Bowers went on their scoring rampage and, by halftime, the Bulldogs led 34-20. By 15 seconds out of the break, after receiver Beau Stuckey picked up the second- half kickoff, weaved through traffic and accelerated for an 86-yard score, Fayetteville was up three touchdowns.

“We got a touchdown right before halftime, too,” said Flannigan, whose 32-yard score came with 9 seconds left in the first half. “It was almost a two- forone. We just hit them real quick. That definitely deflated their spirits a little bit.”

Williams finished with eight catches for 178 yards and two touchdowns from John — who was 13-of-22 for 195 yards, two scores and an interception thrown to Tyler Barnes — for the Griffins, and he added 85 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries on the ground. Williams and feature back Percy Mitchell, who finished with 132 yards on 20 carries, kept the Bulldogs’ defense off balance in the first half, but Vianney managed only 118 yards in the second half.

And 72 of those came on a bomb from John to Williams.

“We got our eyes wrong a couple times, and you can’t miss tackles on those dudes,” Dawson said. “We kind of snuck another guy down into the box trying to help us. This gives us a lot of confidence. We’ve got some guys that played their first varsity game tonight. So to play in this atmosphere, it was a very positive experience.”