AURORA | Regis Jesuit continued its recent success once the Class 5A football postseason rolls around with a first round upset of Gateway Thursday night.
Sophomore quarterback Matt Houghtaling threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to John Schmidt in the first quarter and linebacker Joe Bozeman’s 31-yard fumble return in the third quarter gave the 20th-seeded Raiders enough to outlast the turnover-plagued No. 13 Olys in a 15-14 decision at Aurora Public Schools Stadium.
Regis Jesuit won its postseason opener for the third time in the past four seasons under coach Mark Nolan and evened its record at 5-5 ahead of a second-round matchup against the winner of Friday night’s game between No. 4 Valor Christian and No. 29 Legacy.
“It feels pretty good; first time in the playoffs, first win,” said Houghtaling, who was 9-for-17 for a season-high 173 yards and a touchdown in his postseason debut. “It was definitely one of our proudest moments of the season. I’ve never seen everybody so happy.”
Gateway got touchdown runs from seniors Tory Adams and Tate Johnson, but three costly fumbles — including one in the red zone in the fourth quarter — and a failed 2-point try kept it from winning its first home playoff game since 2005.
Coach Justin Hoffman’s Olys finished the season 7-3 overall, with the three losses coming by a combined total of 12 points.
Normally heavy on the run, Regis Jesuit came out throwing the ball on the opening possession, as Houghtaling hooked up with Robert Orban on a 32-yard strike on the first play from scrimmage. The opening series didn’t net any point for the Raiders, but the second one did.
Houghtaling again went to the air for a 29-yard completion to Alex Mitchell, then capped a six-play, 61-yard drive with a 22-yard touchdown strike to Schmidt. Nolan chose to go for two when Gateway jumped offside on the extra point try and sophomore Trevor Williams converted for an 8-0 Raiders lead.
Eddie Gonzales recovered a Johnson fumble on the first play of the Olys’ next drive to set Regis Jesuit up at the 10-yard line, but four straight runs by Williams (who had a team-high 72 yards rushing) failed to pick up the first down and the ball went back to Gateway on downs.
The Olys picked up the pace on offense on their second series of the second quarter and finally got in the end zone, with Johnson and Adams combining for eight rushes on a 57-yard drive that was capped by Adams’ 7-yard TD run. Miguel Gonzalez reached the end zone for a two-point conversion that tied the game at 8-8, which it remained at halftime.
Gateway got the opening possession of the second half and Hoffman had his team go for it on 4th-and-1 from its own 30 yard-line. Johnson fumbled the ball, however, and Bozeman — who had both hands heavily bandaged — managed to scoop it up and race untouched up the left sideline for a touchdown. The Olys also allowed a fumble return for a score against Rangeview in a one-point loss earlier in the season.
“I just didn’t think about it, it just happened and I just ran,” said Bozeman, who also scored in the Raiders’ regular season finale against Highlands Ranch. “When I was out there celebrating with my teammates, I was like ‘that actually happened.’”
Regis Jesuit threatened for another score on its next possession and had a 1st-and-goal at the Gateway 7, but three negative plays and an incompletion on fourth down gave the ball back to the Olys, who promptly marched 80 yards for a touchdown in seven plays.
Gonzalez’s 47-yard scamper up the sideline pushed Gateway deep into Regis Jesuit territory and following three straight tough runs by Lamont Lynch, Johnson got into the end zone from 9 yards out with 1:04 left in the third quarter.
Down one point at 15-14, Hoffman didn’t hesitate to go for two points and the lead, but Gonzalez was stuffed in the backfield by Daniel Talley and others and the Raiders preserved their one-point advantage.
“I had no problem with my guys trying to get three yards no matter where we are on the field,” Hoffman said. “We’d done it earlier in the game and we thought we could do it again.”
Gateway continued its offensive momentum on its next series and had a 1st-and-goal from the Regis Jesuit 7, with an encroachment penalty on Regis Jesuit senior lineman Alessio Lopez on 4th down helping to extend the drive.
Lopez made up for it three plays later, however, when he pounced on Johnson’s fumble on 3rd-and-goal from the 2-yard line, keeping the Olys from even trying a short field goal to take the lead.
A last ditch drive fueled by a long completion from Johnson to Anthony Holmes again got Gateway in position to score at the Regis Jesuit 25-yard line, but Johnson fumbled on an option play to make it 4th-and-9 from the 30. Following back-to-back timeouts, Johnson couldn’t find an open receiver and was stopped two yards short of the first down to seal the game.
There was a lot to look back on for Hoffman, who saw his defense put forth another outstanding effort, only to see mistakes come back to haunt them in the end.
“Our defense grinded it out; that was our word of the week, grind; we wanted to grind this team down and we thought we could,” said Hoffman, who is still looking for his first playoff win.
“We proved that tonight. We just couldn’t hold onto the ball. We expected to win this game and go play the winner next week.”
Instead, it is Regis Jesuit which can look forward to a potential meeting with Valor Christian, which won a four-point game when the teams played early last season.
“Absolutely we want to play Valor,” Bozeman said. “That would be great. It would almost be like state.”
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
(20) REGIS JESUIT 15, (13) GATEWAY 14
Score by quarters:
Regis Jesuit 8 0 7 0 — 15
Gateway 0 8 6 0 — 14
SCORING
First quarter
Regis Jesuit — John Schmidt 22 yard pass from Matt Houghtaling (Trevor Williams run), 5:20
Second quarter
Gateway — Tory Adams 7 yard run (Miguel Gonzalez run), 5:55
Third quarter
Regis Jesuit — Joe Bozeman 31 yard fumble return (Vince Sabin kick); Gateway — Tate Johnson 9 yard run (run failed), 1:04
RUSHING
Regis Jesuit: Trevor Williams 24-72, John Schmidt 3-(minus 11), Matt Houghtaling 9-(minus 10), Dejour Elliott 1-(minus 2)
Gateway: Tate Johnson 19-88, Miguel Gonzalez 15-65, Tory Adams 6-32, Lamont Lynch 5-22, Nik Adams 2-6
PASSING
Regis Jesuit: Houghtaling 9-17, 173 yards, 1 touchdown
Gateway: Johnson 5-9, 79 yards
RECEIVING
Regis Jesuit: Alex Mitchell 3-79, John Schmidt 2-38, Robert Orban 1-32, Cody Lippert 1-17, Williams 2-7
Gateway: Anthony Holmes 3-64, Nik Adams 1-12, Gonzalez 1-3
