The Hamilton Huskies survived a battle Thursday night against The Brophy Broncos, whose missed opportunities kept them from upsetting the No. 6-ranked team from Chandler in a 38-31 defeat.

Hamilton started the game off hot, with Jawhar Jordan Jr., scoring on a 56-yard touchdown run to put Hamilton up 7-0 early in the first quarter.

But it was what quarterback Tyler Shough did late in the fourth quarter that secured the victory for Hamilton.

Shough and the Huskies’ offense watched as the Broncos marched down the field, scoring on a 14-yard pass that cut the Hamilton lead to 31-24. With the Broncos defense having held the Huskies’ scoreless since the first half, the momentum seemed to reside with Brophy.

But on what just happened to be Shough’s birthday, the future North Carolina Tar Heel only needed 19 seconds to put the Huskies’ back up by two scores with his 55-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Brandon Schenks.

“The biggest thing is obviously you want to get win for the team,” Shough said.  “I wasn’t thinking about the birthday too much during the game, but it’s always a great feeling to celebrate after with my teammates.”

The Broncos were able to record another touchdown, but a failed onside kick attempt let the home Huskies crowd breathe a sigh of relief as the threat of an upset was put to rest.

Jordan followed up his 124 rushing yards and three touchdown performance last week at Skyline with 128 yards on the ground with one touchdown while dealing with a tweaked ankle that he sustained in the second quarter.

“It was just a mild sprain," Jordan said. "I know we have a bye week coming up, so I told my team I’m going to get through this and help them win."

This is the same ankle that Jordan hurt four games ago against Red Mountain, but he overcame the pain and with a bye week ahead, getting healthy and preparing for Basha is the focus.

Said Jordan,  “We’re not going to take them lightly, you see how Brophy came out strong and look at the score 38-31, so we can’t sleep on anyone, we got to come out strong”

After a night where the Huskies defense allowed 31 points behind a series of missed tackles and opportunities, the defense's tackling drills will be one of its priorities.

“We got to make tackles, we have got to make tackles and we have to stay low on the defensive line,” Hamilton coach Dick Baniszewski said.

Hamilton (6-1) has a bye, so they will look ahead to playing Basha (1-6) in its final home game of the regular season on October 13.

Brophy College (1-6) will have to travel back to Chandler to square off with Basha first on October 6.