The San Jose Eathquakes celebrate forward Nick Fernandez’s first career goal against the USL’s Phoenix Rising in the Round of 32 of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at PayPal Park on Wednesday APR 15, 2026. (San Jose Earthquakes)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE–The San Jose Earthquakes continued their winning ways.

Despite being a man down for the majority of the match, the Quakes beat the USL’s Phoenix Rising 2-0 in the Round of 32 of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday evening at PayPal Park.

Nick Fernandez, the Man of the Match, was able to jump start San Jose by scoring his first goal of the tournament and of his career in the third minute. Timo Werner, who was back in action after missing the past two matches with an injury, found Fernandez along the left wing. Fernandez dribbled back into the middle and rifled home a right footed shot beating Rising goalkeeper Darius Johnson from 20 yards out.

“It’s a moment I’ll never forget: Getting the first start of the year and scoring is a very special moment, and celebrating with my team,” Fernandez said.

Werner nearly doubled San Jose’s lead in the 16th minute when he received the ball at midfield and raced down the field on a breakaway. Werner made one move around one Rising defender before his shot attempt was saved by Johnson.

“Well, clearly scoring a goal in the first three minutes is huge, so I certainly liked that,” said Quakes head coach Bruce Arena on the team’s fast start. “The second goal was important, and then we had a couple of chances at a third. One of the positives on the night is we got minutes for players that haven’t played in a while.”

Fernandez retuned the favor in the 23rd minute when sent a long ball from the left sideline down to the right side of the pitch where wingback Jack Jasinski chased down the ball and one-timed it past Johnson for first his goal of the tournament and his career.

San Jose went down to 10 men in the 39th minute when midfielder Johnathan Gonzales was issued his second yellow card of the match with a bad foul. Gonzales, who picked up his first yellow card in the 13th, was ejected from the match after earning a red card with the two yellow cards.

The Quakes defense held down the fort in the second half as goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr. only needed to make a big save late in the match as he earned a clean sheet for the match. He now has six career clean sheets across all competitions.

San Jose advances to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 16, where they will host Minnesota United FC at PayPal Park on either April 28 or 29. The date and time to be determined at a later date.

GAME NOTES: Noel Buck and Max Floriani made their 2026 Earthquakes debuts, with the former logging 62 minutes at left winger and initiating the second goal sequence, while the latter played all 90 minutes at center back and helped seal the clean sheet.

Nonso Adimabua made his Quakes First Team debut after a breakout 2025 with San Jose’s MLS NEXT Pro side, setting a club single-season record with 13 goals and 19 total goal contributions. Adimabua started tonight’s match at center forward and played 62 minutes.

With Fernandez and Jasinski scoring their first goals of 2026, the Earthquakes now have had nine different goal scorers across all competitions. With Fernandez’s first assist of 2026, the Quakes now have had 10 different players record an assist or more across all competitions.

UP NEXT: San Jose returns to MLS league play on Sunday April 19 against LAFC at 4:00pm on Sunday Night Soccer on Apple TV at BMO Stadium.