Ayden Fernandez, strong defense power Reagan past Brandeis for first victory

Ayden Fernandez splits his time on both sides of the ball for Reagan, but the Rattlers turned to him to take on a bigger role on offense Saturday.

The two-way athlete rushed for 164 yards and two scores in leading Reagan to a 35-20 win over the Brandeis Broncos in a District 28-6A game at Farris Stadium.

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Behind Fernandez’s big rushing night and a defense which produced two interceptions returns for scores, Reagan (1-3, 1-0) picked up its first win of the season after losing its first three games. Most importantly, the Rattlers opened district play on the right note against Brandeis (2-2, 0-1), preserving a 7-0 record in the all-time series between the two teams.

Fernandez, a senior who also plays linebacker, said the improved Reagan rushing attack was the result of the work the offensive line has put in at practice.

“Our offensive line, these past two weeks we’ve been working on downhill run, downhill run, and that’s what we did, downhill run,” Fernandez said. “They can’t stop it.”

Reagan coach Preston Meyer said Fernandez is going to be seeing more time in the offensive backfield for the remainder of the season.

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“If you’re going to win football games, you got to be able to run the ball,” Meyer said. “Ayden (Fernandez) had been playing some running back, but we decided let’s give him a bigger role on the offensive side of the football. He can still play a little defense, but he’s going to be our primary running back moving forward.”

While Brandeis senior quarterback Wynter Smith rushed for 110 yards and one score, Reagan’s defense limited the dual threat signal caller to 8-of-26 passing. Jayden Horace and Steven Robinson each returned interceptions for touchdowns for the Rattlers, and defensive end Emiliano Berlin sacked Smith twice.

“Well, we knew going into it, their quarterback would run around and make a lot of plays with his feet and with his arm,” Meyer said. “But going into it, we knew if we could slow him down and give him trouble then we would be successful defensively. We knew you can’t just go crazy, trying to bring pressure and rush him because he’ll split you, and so we just wanted to keep the eyes on the quarterback, play some zone, underneath zone coverage. That way when he did try to escape, we had eyes on him ready to go, try to get him on the ground.”

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Reagan scored its first touchdown before its offensive unit got on the field, as Robinson picked off a Smith pass on the game’s first possession, returning it 65 yards for the score with 8:29 left in the first quarter.

The Rattlers extended their lead to 14-0 late in the first quarter, as Fernandez scored his first touchdown on a 1-yarder, with sophomore Jayson Sinclair setting up Fernandez’s score with a 32-yard scamper to the Brandeis 1-yard line.

Brandeis scored on two consecutive drives in the second quarter to tie the game at 14, first on a 26-yard scoring run from Smith, then on a 28-yard touchdown pass down the middle from Smith to sophomore Jacob De La O.

Reagan regained the lead on the ensuing possession. Quarterback Jace Huesser utilized the play-action fake to connect with tight end Russell Reed for a 72-yard touchdown catch with 3:27 remaining in the first half, giving the Rattlers a 21-14 halftime advantage.

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Reagan struck quickly in the second half as Fernandez scored on a 43-yard run on the fourth play to put the Rattlers up by two touchdowns just over a minute into the third quarter.

Fernandez said his second touchdown run further boosted the energy level of his teammates.

“It was definitely energy once I scored,” Fernandez said. “I came back on the sideline, everyone’s up, it feels good. It 100 percent set the tone (for the rest of the game). After that we were firing, offense, special teams, defense and when a team is firing on all three phases, you can’t beat them.”

Brandeis chipped into the Reagan lead as Zach Cantu booted field goals of 41 and 49 yards on consecutive possessions to put the Broncos within 28-20 with 15 seconds left in the third quarter.

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Reagan continued to grind it out on the ground in the second half, as Fernandez and Sinclair each carried the ball on a long drive that put the Rattlers at the Brandeis 11 in the fourth quarter. The drive set up a field goal attempt, but Brandeis blocked it to keep the game within one score.

But the momentum from the blocked field goal attempt would be short lived for the Broncos, as Reagan brought the pressure on Smith, whose pass was picked off by Horace for a 45-yard touchdown, sealing the win for the Rattlers with 6:13 left in the game.

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This article originally published at Ayden Fernandez, strong defense power Reagan past Brandeis for first victory.