LINCOLN, Neb.—Dalton Sealey and Beau Schwenka scored two touchdowns apiece as No. 2 Hastings St. Cecilia beat Norfolk Catholic on Tuesday to win the Class C1 state championship with a 26-18 victory.
Wade Dykeman ended Norfolk Catholic’s final drive with an interception to seal the win.
“Gosh, wasn’t that beautiful? That was a hard, tough game,” St. Cecilia coach Carl Tesmer said. “I really didn’t know if we could give up 18 points and win the ball game. Not that I didn’t have confidence in our offense, but we were just fortunate to get some good things going. Everything fell in.”
Sealey ran for 106 yards and Ben Konen had 93 to join Sealey as a 1,000-yard rusher for the season.
“A lot of those were tough yards, pounding away and breaking tackles,” Tesmer said.
Sealey scored from 3 yards and Schwenka from 25 to give the Bluehawks a 26-10 lead early in the fourth quarter.
But Austin Ketter’s 26-yard TD pass to Kory Schaefer and a 2-point conversion pulled the No. 3 Knights (12-1) within eight points with 3:39 left, and they got the ball back after forcing a three-and-out.
Ketter moved the Knights from their 36 to the Bluehawks 13 in less than two minutes before throwing right to Dykeman, a senior linebacker who was sitting on a post route at his own 9-yard line.
“I got a little nervous when they were inside the red zone, and they got that 2-point conversion, but our defense really stepped up,” Dykeman said. “I kept dropping and made a play on the ball. I didn’t want them to throw it behind me.”
Dykeman ran back the interception to his 20, and St. Cecilia (13-0) ran out the clock for its second state championship. The Bluehawks’ other title came in 2000.
Kelby Seyl, the Knights’ 1,000-yard rusher, was held to 49 yards. Ketter completed 13 of 23 passes for 178 yards, with two interceptions. He was sacked three times.
“We kept fighting,” Knights coach Jeff Bellar said. “We probably got beat up front more on both sides of the ball than we would like, but we tried to use the strengths we had, and that was to get our receivers involved. We came up a little short.”
