5A Boys Soccer: Regis Jesuit Takes Advantage of OT Chance to Win Championship

The Regis Jesuit boys soccer team didn’t get many quality shots on goal throughout regulation of Saturday night’s Class 5A state championship game.

The Raiders needed only one in overtime, however, to win it.

Just a short 12 seconds into golden goal overtime, junior Sawyer Berg found the back of the net on a rebound of a shot by senior Kam Bachus as sixth-seeded Regis Jesuit stunned top-seeded Ralston Valley 1-0 at raucous Weidner Field to win the program’s fifth all-time state title.

“The ball popped right out in front of me and I just knew I couldn’t miss,” Berg said in the midst of the jubilation of his program’s first state title since 1996.

“That was probably only our third shot of the game, but it went in. …We knew if we sat back in overtime we probably wouldn’t win that game, so we had to take our chance.”

Berg’s game-winner sealed what turned out to be an undefeated season for the Raiders at 18-0-2, while it was the first loss suffered by the Mustangs, who finished 18-1-1.

Regis Jesuit and Ralston Valley met way back at the beginning of the season at the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational and played to a 1-1 tie after the Mustangs got an equalizing goal in the final minute from goalkeeper Ben Brown.

The rematch two-plus months later was equally even, though senior star midfielder Ethan Orchard — a University of Denver commitment with a team-high 18 goals to his credit — and Ralston Valley tilted the field in the second half and generated a slew of dangerous chances.

Regis Jesuit junior goalkeeper Marcus Huguelet rose to the occasion when needed to keep the ball out of the net and the Raiders actually generated the last good chance of regulation when senior Hugh Brophy blasted a shot from outside the box that was snared by a diving Brown.

While Ralston Valley had gone to overtime as recently as the semifinals, when it rallied to tie 12th-seeded Cherokee Trail and eventually won in a shootout, Regis Jesuit had won all of its previous playoff games (vs. No. 27 Lakewood, No. 11 Denver North, No. 3 Northfield and No. 7 Pine Creek) in regulation.

Regis Jesuit got to kick off in the extra period and Bachus started a play that saw the ball go to the wing to sophomore Diego Torres, who put it in to Berg, to deflected it to Bachus for a quick shot. Brown got his gloves on the initial shot, but the rebound came out to Berg, who split a pair of defenders and scored his fourth goal of the season and first since Oct. 25 to ignite pandemonium on the Regis Jesuit side.

Regis Jesuit’s state championship was the first as head coach for Rick Wolf, who guided the program to a runner-up finish in 2019, but now has a title to go with those the program won in 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1996.

“It feels like a dream to be honest,” Wolf said. “I cannot believe it, I thought I was going to wake up. I’ve heard people say that before and it was like ‘yeah, whatever,’ but it’s so true. This is incredible.”

Last season’s Regis Jesuit team had star talents such as Jack De Simone and Charles Sharp, who were among the state leaders in goals scored and points, but got stopped in the quarterfinals. This season’s group came in as a bit of a wild card, but demonstrated its depth regularly as the season went along.

Berg became the fifth player in five games to score the goal that turned out to be the game-winner in the postseason.

“Coming into the season we had a lot of doubters, but everybody worked so hard every single day,” Bachus said. “That shows on the field. Undefeated season, state championship, what more could you ask for?”