LINCOLN, Neb.—Clint Belina ran for 184 yards and five touchdowns in the first half as Howells rolled over Axtell 46-21 to cap a perfect season with the Class D-1 state high school football championship.
It is Howells’ sixth D-1 championship since 2000, its first since 2005.
Belina finished the game with 310 yards rushing and six touchdowns on 37 carries.
“My offensive line made humongous holes for me,” Belina said. “It?s not a hard job when I have that big of holes to run through.”
Howells (13-0) scored on its first five possessions with Belina going in on runs of 5, 2, 16, 4 and 3 yards. The Bobcats led 26-0 before Axtell (9-4) got a quarterback sneak touchdown from Spencer Fecht.
The Bobcats scored on the final play of the second quarter when defensive end Cody Hegemann picked off a Fecht pass and rumbled 11 yards to it 40-7 at halftime.
“You never expect a game to be like that,” Howells coach Mike Speirs said. “Clint was running the ball, we were blocking well and we decided that was pretty much what we were going to do.”
Neither team scored in the third quarter.
Belina?s final touchdown came on a 26-yard pitch with 9:11 remaining in the game.
Axtell added a pair of touchdowns late in the fourth quarter to close the scoring gap. Weston Gustafson scored on a 1-yard dive with 3:42 left and James Clark picked up a Howells fumble 12 seconds later and ran it in from 38 yards.
The Bobcats finished the game with 364 yards rushing and 13 yards through the air. Axtell had 245 yards in total offense.
