HOWELLS -- The Howells Bobcats didn’t lose their heads when they lost the lead.
Clarkson overcame a 20-point second-half deficit, but Clint Belina’s 9-yard touchdown run with 7:31 left lifted the Bobcats to a 28-20 victory in the Class D-1 state football semifinals Saturday night.
Howells (12-0), ranked first in Class D-1, will go for its seventh straight title in the class. The Bobcats, who played 11-man football the last two seasons, were D-1 champions from 2000 through 2005.
The team will take on Axtell (9-3) in Thursday night’s championship game at Memorial Stadium.
The Wildcats defeated Maxwell 30-22 Saturday, their third straight win by a touchdown or less. They used a last-minute touchdown to beat Clearwater-Orchard 40-36 in the quarterfinals and edged Newman Grove 28-20 in the second round.
The fourth-ranked Red Devils finish the season with a 10-2 record, with both losses coming to the Bobcats.
Howells Coach Mike Speirs expected a much closer game than the team’s 44-20 win over Clarkson in the regular season finale.
“Just looking at the film of that game, you could tell the two teams were dead even,” he said.
“We knew we could play with them. We had our opportunities tonight, but Howells got the job done,” Clarkson Coach Jim Clarkson said.
Clarkson made things very interesting after falling behind 20-0 less than three minutes into the second half.
Jordan Gall scored on a 50-yard run. Michael Konicek added the conversion run to cut the Howells lead to 20-8.
The Clarkson defense stepped up, forcing fumbles on the Bobcats next two possessions.
Dustin Stodola recovered the first one at the Howells 26. Jeff Stoklasa hit Jake Harney for a 17-yard touchdown pass on a second-and-12 play to cut the lead to 20-14 with 2:47 left in the third.
Running back Clint Belina, who had his third straight game of more than 200 rushing yards for the Bobcats, was stripped of the ball by Clarkson’s Joe Vrbicky, who fell on the ball at the Howells 35.
The Red Devils again converted in a long yardage situation. Stoklasa, who passed for 145 yards, hit Brendon Oenbring on a 24-yard touchdown pass to tie the game with 11:13 remaining.
“Our kids showed a lot of fortitude,” Clarkson said. “They’ve worked really hard to get to this point. I wish this could have gone the other way, because I think there were two of the best teams in the state playing here tonight, but hats off to Howells.”
Belina shook off his two lost fumbles in the half. He had runs of 11 and 10 yards, respectively, to get Howells into Clarkson territory.
“I let a couple get away,” Belina said. “I knew that I had to hold on to the ball. I knew if I did that, we could come back and we pulled it off.”
“He had a couple of drops, but he responded well. He came up big when we needed it,” Speirs said.
A holding penalty wiped out Belina’s 14-yard run to the Clarkson five-yard line.
A third-and-12 pass from the Clarkson 26 was incomplete, but the Red Devils were flagged for pass interference.
One play later, Belina was in the end zone again on a 9-yard touchdown run.
“We just had to not panic and keep doing what we had been. We were able to keep our heads in it and make the plays,” lineman Mitch Tomka said.
The junior, who finished with 240 yards rushing on 36 carries (giving him 2,172 yards on the season), added the crucial conversion run.
“I have the best line in the state,” Belina said. “They played a great game. Clarkson had another great defense, but we were able to run on them.”
The Red Devils threatened again.
Stoklasa hit Brian Steffensmeier on a 15-yard pass on a third-and-10 play. He later added an 11-yard run on an option keeper to the Howells 33.
The Red Devils had a third-and-three at the Howells 14, but a misfire on the exchange on a handoff from Stoklasa to Michael Konicek resulted in a fumble that Clarkson recovered for a one-yard loss.
Clarkson went to the air on fourth-and-four, but Stoklasa was forced to run the ball. He was tackled two yards short of the first down.
The Red Devils forced a three-and-out to get the ball back with 1:27 remaining, but Prusa sealed the game with an interception.
Both teams missed on their first chances to score early.
Clarkson took the opening drive 51 yards to the Howells six-yard line, but Prusa broke up Stoklasa’s fourth-down pass for Harney in the end zone.
The Bobcats drove 54 yards to the Clarkson 20, but Prusa was stopped for no gain by a host of defenders on a fourth-and-four play.
It looked like the teams might be going into halftime with a scoreless tie when a special teams miscue turned the tide in Howells’ favor.
A Clarkson return man tried to field Zac Boysen’s 34-yard punt at the Red Devils’ five-yard line, but couldn’t hang on to the ball.
Derek Coufal recovered the ball at the three. Belina scored on the next play to give Howells a 6-0 lead with 4:46 left in the first half.
It was the second straight game that a fumble recovery got Howells going, as the team’s first touchdown against Shelby in the quarterfinals came on a fumble return for a score.
“Those are such big momentum plays,” Speirs said. “That got us going for a while. It’s nice to get a play like that two games in a row.”
Howells had that six-point lead at halftime, just like it did against Shelby.
And just as they did against the Huskies, the Bobcats busted out the big play to start the second half.
Belina turned a toss sweep into a 68-yard touchdown run on the team’s second play of the half.
Dustin Sindelar got a piece of a Clarkson punt, resulting in a 20-yard kick that set up Howells in Red Devil territory.
Prusa kept the ball on the option and scored on a 37-yard touchdown run.
He tossed the conversion pass to Sindelar to put Howells up by 20 with 9:23 left in the third quarter.
“I just told the guys that they’ve got to have faith in what we were doing. We believed that we could move the ball. Then we start with the ball on our six-yard line, which made it tough. Then all of a sudden we’re up by 20,” Speirs said.
Howells now has an 88-2 record in its last seven seasons of eight-man football, but continuing the ongoing success at that level was secondary for Speirs Saturday.
“The main thing is that this is a fun group of kids to coach,” he said. “They’ve been tremendous at practice. They’ve been tremendous in games. We just wanted the chance to get to coach them one more game. We get to do that, and we get to go to Lincoln. It’s great.”
Clarkson (10-2) 0 0 14 6”20
Howells (12-0) 0 6 14 8--28
Scoring Summary
H -- Clint Belina 3 run (run failed).
H -- Belina 68 run (run failed).
H -- Brian Prusa 37 run (Derek Sindelar pass from Prusa).
C -- Jordan Gall 50 run (Michael Konicek run).
C -- Jake Harney 17 pass from Jeff Stoklasa (run failed).
C -- Brendon Oenbring 24 pass from Stoklasa (run failed).
H -- Belina 9 run (Belina run).
Team Statistics
C H
First downs 14 15
Rushing 40-194 53-324
Passing 10-15-1 1-3-0
Yards 145 5
Total Off. 55-339 56-329
Penalties 6-48 4-30
Fumbles-Lost 5-2 4-2
Punts 4-24.5 4-31.5
Individual Statistics
RUSHING - (C): Konicek 18-77, Gall 4-61, Stoklasa 16-50, Ben Kucera 1-9, Harney 1-0. (H): Belina 36-240, Prusa 11-64, Austin Coufal 4-17, Derek Coufal 2-3.
PASSING -- (C): Stoklasa 9-14-1, 145. (H): Prusa 1-3-0, 5.
RECEIVING -- (C): Oenbring 3-77, Harney 2-27, Kucera 2-7, Konicek 1-16, Brian Steffensmeier 1-15, Gall 1-3. (H): Sindelar 1-5.
TACKLES -- (C): Joe Vrbicky 15, Harney 12, Dustin Stodola 11, Konicek 10, Tim Prokopec 10. (H): Mitch Tomka 12, Sindelar 12, Cory Hegemann 11, Bryan Mejstrik 10, Belina 10.
TAKEAWAYS -- (C): Stodola 1 fum. rec., Vrbicky 1 fum. rec. (H): Belina 1 fum. rec., D. Coufal 1 fum. rec., Prusa 1 int-0 yds
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