Rego’s electric first half powers Spain Park to dominant win over Calera
Published 11:24 pm Friday, October 17, 2025
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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer
CALERA – As the lights shined down and the seniors were being honored from Calera High School’s football team, cheer squad and marching band, the Spain Park Jaguars came to the field with a mission—to dominate and make the fans remember this game.
From the moment they got the ball to begin the game, that’s exactly what they did, as the Jaguars offense, led by the powerful duo of quarterback Brock Bradley and wide receiver Kena Rego came out on fire on the way to 42-13 win over the Calera Eagles on Friday, Oct. 17 at Ricky M. Cairns Stadium.
It was a night that saw Rego record three receiving touchdowns in the first half, helping the Spain Park offense get off to a fast start and show its benefits on the scoreboard.
“Kena is a really good football player,” said Spain Park head coach Tim Vakakes. “We took what the defense gave us and Brock did a good job of distributing the ball and going through his reads and progressions. The line did a good job and Kena finished the play, so it was good to see our guys clicking.”
After getting the ball on the opening kick-off, the Jags moved down the field methodically without much push back, and after two plays failed to gain near midfield, Bradley took a chance on his star receiver to make a play and found Rego deep down field for the game’s opening touchdown, making it 7-0 not even three minutes into the game.
The Eagles took the quick punch with toughness though and started driving down the field led by running back Jordan Henderson.
However, on the eighth play of the drive, quarterback Jordan Ward through the ball to the right side where it was jumped and picked off by Xander McClure, who returned it all the way back to Calera territory.
Five plays later, it was, as Vakakes says, “rinse and repeat,” as Bradley once again found Rego, this time over the middle for his second touchdown of the night to quickly make it 14-0.
The Eagles made sure to put up a statement of their own though, as on the first play of the ensuing possesion, Ward launched a pass downfield to an open Ean Williamson, who won a foot race to score an 80-yard touchdown to close the gap, putting it at 14-6.
Nearing the end of an active first quarter however, Spain Park had more to say and moved the ball with efficiency before seeing Hudson Hibbard run it up the middle as time expired, making it a 21-6 game heading into the second quarter.
Needing to keep up with the hot streak that the Jags were on, Calera started slowly fighting its way down the field and tiring the Jags defense for 14 plays. Faced with fourth down on the 15th play though, the Eagles special teams unit trotted out to kick a 27-yard field goal, which ultimately missed and negated the progress they had made.
Spain Park took the opportunity in front of it to take advantage of the miss, cruising with the ball behind backup quarterback Nash Davis, who made quick work of the Calera defense before striking it to Rego once again and completing a hat trick for the Arkansas State commit, putting the score where it stood at halftime at 28-6.
The fast tempo and aggressive play was something completely routine for the Jags, so putting on this kind of show was exactly what Vakakes wanted to see.
“We preach to these kids rinse and repeat, do the same thing,” Vakakes said. “We talk every week, I don’t care where we play, who we play, we have a faceless opponent. Our opponent is ourself and we just got to execute. We practice that way, we preach to them every day and we’re creatures of habit. We don’t change up the mood of the week or the plays or anything depending on who we play. We do what we do.”
With the score at a wide margin, the game slowed down for Spain Park coming out of the half, but that did not mean they were not dominant.
After forcing a quick stop on the Eagles offense to start the third quarter, the Jags got back out on the field with Bradley under center. Spain Park then, like it had all game, moved the ball both through the air and on the ground with ease before Bradley dumped it out to the right side to Landrick Hallman for a touchdown, making 35-6.
Hibbard would score one more time in the closing seconds of the third quarter with another short rushing touchdown to put the score at 42-6 heading into the final 12 minutes, which moved quickly.
The Calera defense mounted one bit of positivity late in the fourth with a strip by Jerrin McCain, who stole the ball and ran it back for a touchdown to close things to 42-13. However, that was all she wrote on the final home game for the Eagles.
On the night, Bradley finished 9-for-10 through the air with 143 yards and three touchdowns, with Rego being the leading receiving target on the night with his six catches for 107 yards and three trips to pay dirt, both continuing their impressive senior years.
With the win, the Jags move to 6-2 on the year and 4-1 in Class 6A, Region 3, locking up a home playoff game in the first round of the postseason. Awaiting them in their final region contest is a home game with the Chilton County Tigers, which will be played on Friday, Oct. 24 at home in Hoover.
“We’ve got to keep getting better,” Vakakes said. “We’ve talked about it the last four, five weeks about every week getting a little bit better and I think these kids are, and credit to our coaching staff who keep pushing these kids. Sometimes it can get monotonous in the season doing the same thing, but our kids have bought into it and I think they’re seeing the benefits of doing the same things over and over and trying to get good. That’s going to be the focus this week.”
The Eagles, meanwhile, dropped to 2-6 on the season with a 1-4 record in region, now looking ahead to a road test with a hungry Helena team, who is fighting for a playoff spot in the final week of region play.