B.J. Smithhart felt the best chance for his St. Aloysius Flashes to hang with the speed of the Dexter Bulldogs was to go two tight ends and run the ball out of the power-I set.

The plan worked well in the first and fourth quarters but Dexter’s balanced offense proved too much in a 28-7 victory that spoiled St. Al’s homecoming Friday at Balzli Field. The visiting Bulldogs got 147 yards passing and two touchdowns from quarterback Tyler Hart to overcome St. Al’s smashmouth attack.

“They are just so fast that we wanted to go two tights and go right at them,” Smithhart said. “We had some bad things happen to us in the first half. We had a couple of turnovers, some penalties. We played hard to the end and I liked how we got after it.”

Dexter coach Randy Sumrall was glad to get out of Vicksburg with a win and see his team remain unbeaten at 3-0 in Region 3-1A play.

“We kept it moving,” Sumrall said of his Bulldogs, who moved to 4-3 overall. “I think our speed pushed us over the edge. You have to give credit to them (St. Al) for staying with the run. They ran it hard.”

The Flashes (2-4, 0-2 3-1A) rushed for 217 yards, most of which came on a 19-play, 87-yard march that ate up nine-plus minutes of the fourth quarter. The drive ended with Mac Jones falling on his fumble in the end zone for the touchdown. Blake Hudson added the PAT kick.

The bad news for the Flashes was that when the drive began on the last play of the third quarter, they were down 28-0. Jones’ score and Hudson’s kick made it 28-7 with 2:47 left in the game.

St. Al started the game in the power set and on its second possession, grinded out a first down. Then a bad snap cost them 20 yards and it changed the complexion of the game. St. Al had to punt out of its own end zone and Dexter received good field position at the St. Al 34.

It took two plays for the Bulldogs to score as Rasheen Robinson went in from 5 yards out. Chris Cooley added the kick for a 7-0 lead with 4:12 left in the first quarter.

St. Al had a fumble and an interception to thwart its possessions in the second quarter.

Hart got the passing going in the second quarter and hit two completions for touchdowns to extend the lead to 20-0. The first TD toss went to Cooley for 28 yards to convert a fourth-and-16. The second score came with 47 seconds left in the half on a 20-yarder to Dante Butler.

Dexter put the game away on its first possession of the second half, going 72 yards in 10 plays. Hart scored on a 10-yard run and the two-point conversion pass to Cooley made it 28-0.

Hart finished the game 10-of-16 for 147 yards. The Bulldogs had 165 rushing.

Carlton Campbell had an impressive game running the ball, finishing with 115 yards on 25 carries.

Jones had 76 on 16 carries. The Flashes threw just four passes, completing one for seven yards.