Football: Regis Jesuit knocks off ranked Horizon, moves to 2-0

AURORA | A Regis Jesuit football team coming into the season under the radar has made itself a pretty big blip.

The Raiders knocked off Horizon — the No. 9 team in Class 5A —21-14 Friday night and made a statement as coach Mark Nolan’s team moved to 2-0.

Seeing more carries due to injuries to Chukwuma Obinnah and Grant Neal, Chase Bertinelli and Jalen Williams combined for 232 yards rushing and two touchdowns and defensive back Will Deines had what proved to be the deciding touchdown on a long fumble return to sink the Hawks in front of a raucous crowd at Lou Kellogg Stadium.

Obinnah and Neal combined for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns on the ground in Regis Jesuit’s opening victory over Rangeview, but both spent most of the game against Horizon (1-1) on the sidelines after getting dinged up early. That left the game in the hands of Bertinelli and Williams, who ran hard behind an offensive line that grew more effective as the game went along.

The Hawks led 7-0 at halftime after cashing in a turnover on Dante Chand’s 1-yard touchdown run, but the Raiders defense flustered quarterback Auston Stackhouse and denied Horizon points three times in the red zone in the first half. The Hawks missed a field goal on one possession and were stuffed on fourth down in two others.

Bertinelli got Regis Jesuit even with a 13-yard burst to the left side with 5:43 remaining in the third quarter and the Raiders began to find more offensive rhythm with a faster pace run by quarterback Matt Houghtaling.

A 17-play drive that took nearly nine minutes off the clock to end the third quarter and open the fourth didn’t produce any points for Regis Jesut, but severely wore the Horizon defense down. It paid off on the next series, as Williams took a toss left, saw a wide open cutback lane across the middle of the field and took the ball 62 yards to the end zone to give the Raiders the lead with just 5:51 left.

Horizon again drove deep into Regis Jesuit territory on big strikes from Stackhouse to Dustin Rivas — who caught nine passes for 265 yards in the game — who was the target of three straight incomplete passes in the end zone as the Hawks looked for the tying score.

On fourth down, Stackhouse was under siege yet again by the Raiders defense line and was wrapped up by Michael Guenther, while Eddie Gonzales punched the ball out of his hand. Deines corralled the ball and took it 70 yards up the sideline with an escort to make it 21-7 with 1:48 left.

Chand scored on a 1-yard run with 6 seconds left to make it a one score game, but Regis Jesuit’s DeJour Elliott recovered Horizon’s onside kick attempt.

Regis Jesuit has a challenge ahead in its next contest, a visit to parochial school rival Mullen, on Sept. 14.

Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555

REGIS JESUIT 21, HORIZON 14

Score by quarters:

Horizon        0   7  0   7 — 14

Regis Jesuit  0  0  7  14 — 21

SCORING

Second quarter

Horizon — Dante Chand 1 yard run (Chad David kick), 5:35

Third quarter

Regis Jesuit — Chase Bertinelli 13 yard run (Harrison Thrasher), 5:43

Fourth quarter

Regis Jesuit — Jalen Williams 62 yard run (Thrasher kick), 5:51

Regis Jesuit — Will Deines 70 yard fumble return (Thrasher kick), 1:48

Horizon — Chand 1 yard run (David kick), 0:06

RUSHING

Regis Jesuit: Chase Bertinelli 20-124, Jalen Williams 8-108, Chukwuma Obinnah 4-24, Alex Mitchell 2-23, Grant Neal 5-21, Matt Houghtaling 7-19, Kevin Ware 1-5, Jacob Vanliew 1-1, Ian Lea 1-(minus 1)

PASSING

Regis Jesuit: Houghtaling 1-5, 1 yard; Ware 0-1, 1 interception

RECEIVING

Regis Jesuit: DeJour Elliott 1-1