Rattlers don’t look back
TD on first play, Green’s 4 scores carry Reagan to district championship
Lined up on his team’s 15-yardline after the opening kickoff, Reagan quarterback Britton Moore spotted playmaking receiver Stayton Ankrom in perfect position.
Moore took the shotgun snap and quickly flung it Ankrom’s way down the line of scrimmage. Ankrom maneuvered past his defender and raced along the sideline, outpacing wishful tacklers on his way to the end zone.
“Coach had it drawn up just exactly how it happened,” Moore said. “You just shoot it out there to Stayton Ankrom and have him go make a play, and that’s what he did. I know what he’s capable of, and he’s a heck of an athlete and he did his job.”
That score served as a prelude to a blowout as the No. 3 Rattlers upended top-ranked Johnson 5221 on Friday afternoon at Heroes Stadium.
“We put it in a really good playmaker’s hands, and he went and found a way to make a play,” Reagan coach Lyndon Hamilton said.
Reagan (8-1) locked up at least a share of the District 28-6A championship and improved to 7-0 in league play with one game remaining.
“We worked all year toward this moment — to win a district championship against a good team like this,” Moore said. “It’s a blessing. I knew we had potential, and I think we showed all of it. I think we played our best game today.”
The Rattlers claimed their eighth district championship and their first since 2016. Reagan will be the district’s top playoff seed.
“( Johnson) is a very good football team, and they’ll make a long run in the playoffs,” Hamilton
said. “But it’s good to be the district champs and bring it back to Reagan.”
Reagan sophomore running back Carson Green rushed for a career-high 234 yards on 27 carries with four touchdowns.
“I wouldn’t have had those big lanes if it wasn’t for my big men up front,” Green said. “They were really on today. All week in practice, we were going fast, and we just executed.”
Green’s previous best was 201 yards in a 27-9 victory over South San on Nov. 8, 2019. Green has 1,007 yards this season and is approaching his total (1,082) from last season.
Reagan outgained Johnson 529-467 in total yardage, includ
ing 356-61 on the ground. Johnson (7-1, 6-1), off to its best start in program history, lost for the first time under coach Mark Soto.
Jaguars quarterback Ty Reasoner threw for 361 yards on 21of-41 passing with two touchdowns and one interception. Shane Johnson caught 10 passes for 187 yards, including a 70-yard score.
But the Jaguars didn’t stop the Rattlers on the ground, and that was the difference.
Green rushed for 199 yards on 19 carries and three touchdowns in the first half to carry the Rattlers to a 31-14 halftime lead. Reagan had 360 total yards in the first half.
“My boys came together,” Green said. “We were told it was going to be a tough game, so we came out with a head of steam. They came in on their high horse,
and we just came and chopped down the mountain, baby.”
The game had the makings of a shootout early.
The Jaguars answered Ankrom’s score with a 33-yard touchdown catch by Matthew Rodriguez with 11:03 left in the first quarter to tie it up, making it two touchdowns in 57 seconds.
Green’s first three scoring runs made it 28-7 midway through the second quarter. He scored twice from1yard and once from 2 yards.
Green set up one of his 1-yard scores with a 57-yard scamper. That short scoring run put the Rattlers up 28-7 at the 7:07 mark of the second quarter.
The Jaguars cut the Rattlers’ lead in half on Reasoner’s 70-yarder to Johnson with 3:42 remaining in the second quarter.
Reagan squeezed in a final firsthalf score with a 44-yard field goal by Nick Hernandez as time expired.
The teams needed only a little more than three minutes to combine for a four-touchdown explosion in the third quarter.
After Green got his fourth score on a 5-yard run at the 7:26 mark, Moore sandwiched a 3-yard touchdown run and 61-yard score around a 10-yard keeper by Reasoner.