No. 2 Cherry Creek marches into another 5A semifinal with win over No. 7 Regis Jesuit

GREENWOOD VILLAGE – Cherry Creek’s journey to win a third straight Class 5A state championship has reached the final two legs after a quarterfinal victory over Regis Jesuit Friday night.

The second-seeded Bruins built a four-touchdown lead before the seventh-seeded Raiders got on the scoreboard as they advanced with a 28-7 victory at Stutler Bowl.

Under veteran coach Dave Logan (who picked up his 300th career win in the previous game), Cherry Creek extended its postseason winning streak to nine games — which includes state championship victories in each of the past two seasons — and moved into a semifinal against the winner of Saturday’s quarterfinal between sixth-seeded Arapahoe and No. 3 Legend. The Warriors were the lone Colorado team in the regular season to defeat the Bruins (10-2), who also lost to Chandler, Arizona.

Cherry Creek defeated Regis Jesuit (8-4) earlier in the regular season by building a comfortable halftime lead and did so again with touchdowns in each of the first two quarters.

On the Bruins’ first possession, junior quarterback Christian Hammond made a big play to escape a sack in the backfield and got off a pass to junior Kyair Johnson, whose 31-yard gain put the Bruins inside the Raiders’ 5-yard line. Hammond finished off the drive himself with a 1-yard keeper on 3rd-and-goal.

Coach Danny Filleman’s Regis Jesuit team attempted to pick up the tempo offensively in the first half and got a little something going on the subsequent possession as junior quarterback Exander Carroll found running room on a couple of occasions before the drive came up empty.

The teams traded unsuccessful drives until Cherry Creek used a short field to double its lead before the break.

Junior Arlon Boyd got plenty of work on the series and finished it off with a four-yard touchdown run with just 1:12 left in the second quarter.

The Bruins tacked on touchdowns in each of the final two quarters — courtesy of junior Carlson Tann on an 8-yard run in the third quarter that came following a fumble recovery and Boyd again from six yards out in the fourth quarter after an interception — to take a commanding advantage.

Regis Jesuit finally broke through with just under six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when junior D’Andre Barnes rushed for a short score.

The Raiders had been in search of making their first semifinal since 2016 and what would have been just the third time since 1990, while instead, the Bruins moved a step from making the final for a fourth consecutive season.