Class D-1 final: Belina unstoppable in Howells' win over Axtell
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BY RYLY JANE HAMBLETON / Lincoln Journal Star
About the only thing that stopped Clint Belina on Friday night was a little blood.
And that didn’t stop him for long.
Belina rushed for 310 yards and six touchdowns to lead top-ranked Howells to its seventh Class D-1 eight-man state championship in a 46-21 victory over Axtell Thursday night at Memorial Stadium.
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The Howells defense didn’t give Axtell much room in the title game, but it was junior Cody Hegemann who turned in the most amazing defensive play.
On the final play of the first half, Axtell lined up in a swinging gate with Brock Peterson over the ball at the Wildcats’ 15-yard line and quarterback Spencer Fecht behind him in shotgun formation. The other six players were off to the right. Fecht dropped back and tried to lob the ball over the 6-foot-1 Hegemann and instead, he tipped the ball to himself and ran 11 yards for a touchdown as time expired.
“We’d never seen that before and the coaches were yelling at us,” said Hegemann. “I had my hands up in the air, tipped it up and it came back to me. I was able to hang onto it for my first interception and my first touchdown.”
Belina, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound junior, ran wild through the Axtell defense. He picked up five of his six touchdowns in the first half, scoring on each of Howells’ first five possessions.
“All season, my offensive line has made humongous holes for me,” said Belina, who finished the season with 2,478 yards on the ground. “It’s not a hard job for me when I have that big of holes to run through. It makes it a lot easier for me to not take as much punishment.”
Belina scored the opening touchdown on a 5-yard run, untouched. After he left the game for three plays to get a cut taped up, he returned and scored on a 2-yard run.
After Zac Boysen recovered a fumble on the kickoff, Belina tip-toed the final six yards on a pitch to the right for a 16-yard score. He scored on a 4-yard run to the right and then on a dive up the middle, again making it into the end zone untouched, for his final touchdown of the first half.
Belina averaged almost 10 yards a carry this season and finished with 286 points on 39 touchdowns — an average of three touchdowns a game.
“Clint was running the ball well and we were blocking well, so that’s pretty much what we decided to do,” said Howells coach Mike Speirs, who got a dousing from his players that was becoming ice on his clothing. “We varied it some, mainly to give him a rest and because they were flowing so hard.”
Howells’ defense was almost impressive. Axtell was limited to 150 yards of offense and one touchdown through the middle of the fourth quarter. Dustin Sindelar led the way with 14 total tackles and Belina and Bryan Mejstrik had 10 apiece. Mitch Tomka had six solo tackles, including one sack and three tackles for losses.
Junior Cody Hegemann returned an interception 11 yards for a score on the last play of the first half.
“That was unfortunate,” said Axtell coach Kent Ropers. “We’re just going to play for pride in the second half.”
Axtell counted on two second-half touchdowns, one on a 42-yard fumble recovery by James Clark and another on a 1-yard run by Wes Gustafson.
Reach Ryly Jane Hambleton at 473-7314 or rhambleton@journalstar.com.
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