AURORA | The Regis Jesuit boys soccer team’s remarkable season continued with its first victory in the Class 5A state playoffs since 2019 when it downed visited Horizon Wednesday night at Lou Kellogg Stadium.
Coach Rick Wolf’s ninth-seeded Raiders played even with the 24th-seeded Hawks for the first 25 minutes before junior Jack De Simone broke the tie with his team-leading 14th goal of the season and junior Charles Sharp added another in a 2-0 first round victory.
Regis Jesuit (11-2-3) won its third game in a row and advanced to the quarterfinals, where it will make an Oct. 31 visit to eighth-seeded Cherry Creek. It will be the third time in the past four seasons that the teams will will meet in the postseason, with the Bruins winning in the first round in 2020 and 2022.
The Raiders went 2-0 for the first time in their annual trip to the Jesuit Classic and won the Continental League championship to boot. They had their highest seed in the state tournament since they were the No. 1 in the 2020 playoffs, which were small due to the coronavinus pandemic.
Regis Jesuit and Horizon (8-7-1) — which came out of a Front Range League with multiple other qualifiers for the state tournament — played scoreless for more than 25 minutes until sophomore Cameron Sim got a steal and sent the ball ahead to De Simone.
De Simone — who scored four goals in his team’s regular season finale against Douglas County — was in front of two Horizon defenders, took a touch to his right to avoid onrushing Horizon keeper Joey Stott and put a bad angle shot into the net.
Sharp, who had a hat trick in the season finale, doubled the lead when he stopped a clearing attempt and rolled of a low shot inside the far post.
Regis Jesuit will play in the second round for the first time since 2019, when it went all the way to the state championship before it lost to Broomfield 1-0.
Full results from the opening round of the 5A boys soccer state playoffs — which saw Aurora Central and Cherokee Trail also prevail among Aurora teams in action — can be found here.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2023 CLASS 5A BOYS SOCCER PLAYOFFS (1ST ROUND)
Oct. 25 at Lou Kellogg Stadium
(9) REGIS JESUIT 2, (24) HORIZON 0
Score by halves:
Horizon 0 0 — 0
Regis Jesuit 1 1 — 2
SCORING
First half
Regis Jesuit — Jack De Simone (Cameron Sim), 25th minute
Second half
Regis Jesuit — Charles Sharp, 50th minute
