KIRKWOOD – American essayist Henry David Thoreau departed society and lived in a remote cabin at Walden Pond for two years in order to “simplify, simplify, simplify” his life.
First-year offensive coordinator Devon Thomas decided the Francis Howell Central offense needed to adopt that same philosophy after it sputtered in two lopsided losses to begin the season.
“The past couple weeks we were down on ourselves. I do feel like maybe we were doing too much. The gameplan this week was to simplify,” Thomas said.
Howell Central opened the game with a 20-play touchdown drive that used up the entire first quarter, then closed it with an 18-play drive to seal victory as the Spartans defeated Vianney 34-21 Friday at Vianney High.
Francis Howell (1-2), which scored touchdowns on its first four possessions, handed Vianney (2-1) its first loss of the season for the second consecutive year.
“Going 0-2 is not how we wanted to start our season. It’s not how we’ve been training since December, and we definitely had a weight on our back,” senior running back Ashton Payton said.
Payton put the Spartans on his back during an opening drive that set a new tone for the Howell Central offense. The Spartans won the toss, elected to receive and did not allow Vianney to possess the ball until the second quarter. Among the 20 plays were 11 handoffs to Payton, who gained 24 yards on his first carry and delivered a punishing, three-yard gain on fourth-and-3 to extend the drive.
During the tone-setting possession, Thomas looked over his play sheet and called 19 running plays and one wide receiver screen, and the teams switched sides after the first quarter with the Spartans facing a fourth-and-goal from the Vianney one-yard line.
“It was a good feeling,” senior offensive tackle Aymen Mohammed said. “We were moving the ball pretty well and I thought, ‘I can’t complain. If this is what it’s going to take, then let’s do it.”
Junior Jack Brown took a direct snap and dove over the pile to complete the 20-play, 80-yard scoring drive that took more than 12 minutes off the clock.
“Kudos to them. That’s big boy football to come out that first possession, control the clock, getting a couple yards at a time. I think they wanted to do that knowing how explosive our offense can be,” Vianney coach Chris Starkey said.
Despite the long wait, the Vianney offense cruised down the field on its first possession and scored when senior quarterback Sam Deen picked up a dropped snap and threaded a laser into the belly of senior Collin Gaine to tie the game at 7.
But Howell Central decided it was not interested in having the second quarter linger around too long, either. The Spartans used more than six minutes to complete a 10-play, 73-yard drive that included eight running plays. A 27-yard screen pass to Payton provided the splash play before Campbell ran four yards around right end to regain the lead.
“The last two weeks, we tried to put in all these plays and it got super-complicated. We decided this week that simple is better. It was smashmouth football,” Campbell said.
An interception by junior Kris Hollis gave the Spartans the ball late in the first half, and Campbell proved that the Spartans’ offense could also work quickly. On the fifth play, he rolled left and launched a 24-yard touchdown strike to senior Xavier Morrison in the corner of the end zone to give Howell Central a 21-7 halftime lead.
“I just let him go up and win that,” Campbell said of the touchdown pass to the 6-foot-5 Morrison, who averaged 11.4 points and seven rebounds for the Spartans’ basketball team last winter.
Payton gained 109 yards rushing in the first half and continued to churn out yardage on the first Spartans’ drive after intermission. Then, Campbell faked a handoff, rolled left and found Brae Rose in the left corner of the end zone from 24 yards out to complete an 8-play, 65-yard drive and give Howell Central a fourth touchdown in four possessions.
“We didn’t go for the big plays too early. We slowed it down, we waited, and when it was time to take our shots (downfield), we took our shots,” Mohammed said.
Trailing 28-7, Vianney found its footing midway through the third quarter. Gaine plowed in from two yards away to tighten the gap, and when Deen found freshman KaLi Thomas on a perfectly thrown 78-yard bomb, the Griffins sliced the deficit to 28-21 with 10:54 remaining.
The most important drive of the season awaited the Spartans, as they did not want to give the ball back to Deen and the explosive Griffins. Campbell led the offense on an 18-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that ate up nine minutes of the fourth quarter.
“Our offense played good defense I guess you could say,” Campbell said.
Payton gained 34 yards rushing and receiving on the decisive drive, including a tough fourth-and-1 conversion.
“All week, he was saying, ‘Feed me. It’s my time. There was hunger in his eyes,” Thomas said of Payton. “There’s just a toughness in him, a grit, a will-to-win, that bled over to the entire team. You see him giving that much, it makes everybody want to give that same thing.”
The Spartans appeared to kick a field goal to put them ahead by 10 points, but Vianney was called for a penalty. Howell Central coach Malach Radigan elected to take the points off the scoreboard in order to bleed more clock. After two runs from Payton, Thomas saw one, final opportunity to show the growth of the Howell Central offense.
“(Radigan) wanted to keep running clock, but I said, ‘No, this is the play.’ I wanted to put it in (Campbell’s) hands,” Thomas said. “In those big moments, you think as a play-caller, where do I go here? And to have that trust in your quarterback, it’s a game-changer.”
Campbell ran a play-action pass and found Jamel Anderson Jr. in the end zone for the touchdown that put the game out of reach.
Against Liberty in the season opener, Howell Central running backs gained 11 yards on 14 carries and the Spartans lost by 28 points. Against Festus in Week 2, the Spartans gained less than 200 yards of total offense in another 28-point loss.
On Friday, Campbell threw for 153 yards, Payton ran for 146 and the Spartans’ offense operated like a well-oiled machine.
“Our offensive coaching staff wore those last two losses pretty hard,” Radigan said. “We said from the get-go we don’t care how we win tonight. We wanted to stay together and represent ourselves well, and our guys did that.”
Campbell added, “The first two weeks we were finding our footing, and we finally found it. It’s a testament to who we are, and a flash forward to what’s to come.”
For a photo gallery from this game, visit: https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Football/Football-2025/Francis-Howell-Central-vs-Vianney-9-12-25