AURORA | There’s bouncing back from adversity and then there’s what the Regis Jesuit football team did against ThunderRidge Friday night.
The Raiders had an excellent week of practice following a Week 4 loss to Cherokee Trail and liked the matchup they had with the Class 5A top-ranked Grizzlies coming to Lou Kellogg Stadium on Homecoming.
Regis Jesuit — ranked No. 9 in the most recent 5A CHSAANow.com coaches/media poll — hung the first 28 points on ThunderRidge in the first half and dominated the soggy night defensively on its way to a rousing victory in its Continental League opener that pushed the Raiders to 4-1 overall.
Quarterback Matt Houghtaling rushed for a touchdown and passed for one to Cody Lippert and Kameron Butler and Grant Neal ran for short scores in the first half as Regis Jesuit piled up 283 yards of offense and sent the Grizzlies reeling.
Declan Brown had a pair of interceptions and Joe Bozeman had one as well in the second half as the Raiders’ defense kept ThunderRidge and star quarterback Brody Westmoreland from gaining any real momentum.
The Grizzlies eventually got onto the scoreboard midway through the third quarter on 43-yard touchdown run by Westmoreland, who suffered a leg injury that knocked him out of the game late in the period.
Brown intercepted the first pass from ThunderRidge backup Brandon Brenning on the second play of the fourth quarter, setting up Jalen Wiliams’ 5-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring.
Steve Ray scored an 11-yard touchdown in garbage time for the Grizzlies.
(9) REGIS JESUIT 35, (1) THUNDERRIDGE 12
Score by quarters:
ThunderRidge 0 0 6 6 — 12
Regis Jesuit 14 14 0 7 — 35
SCORING
First quarter
Regis Jesuit — Matt Houghtaling 14 yard run (Vince Sabin kick), 5:02
Regis Jesuit — Kameron Butler 2 yard run (Sabin kick), 1:44
Second quarter
Regis Jesuit — Grant Neal 2 yard run (Sabin kick), 10:14
Regis Jesuit — Cody Lippert 4 yard pass from Houghtaling (Sabin kick), 6:09
Third quarter
ThunderRidge — Brody Westmoreland 43 yard run (kick failed), 7:15
Fourth quarter
Regis Jesuit — Jalen Williams 5 yard run (Sabin kick), 11:05
ThunderRidge — Steve Ray 11 yard run (pass failed), 1:03
RUSHING
Regis Jesuit: Jalen Williams 20-102, TJ Marion 3-29, Matt Houghtaling 6-27, Grant Neal 7-23, Trevor Williams 2-8, Kameron Butler 4-7
PASSING
Regis Jesuit: Houghtaling 9-16, 172 yards passing, 1 touchdown
RECEIVING
Regis Jesuit: Trevor Williams 3-102, Cody Lippert 3-37, AJ Shaw 1-18, Marion 1-14
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. Facebook: Aurora Prep Sentinel