Downey players show Finalists trophy after their loss to Murrieta Valley in their CIF Championship girls water polo match at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday. Murrieta Valley defeated Downey, 8-6. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)

Even with an 8-6 loss to Murrieta Valley High School in the CIF D2 Championship game last Saturday (Feb. 22), the Downey Girls Water Polo team has made winning strides these last few years.

It was the second title-game appearance for the Vikings since 2018 under the current staff of coaches, headed up by the much-decorated Uriel Villa, who has personally been a part of seven championship appearances as a player, assistant and head coach with the boys and girls programs.

Villa, along with his assistant coach/wife Alyssa Villa and assistants Ayelen Gimenez and Sage Bertsch have consistently appeared in the playoffs and have advanced to two semifinals, a quarterfinal and a championship game in the last four years.

In addition to the championship appearance, the Vikings qualified for the CIF So Cal Championships in a game Tuesday (Feb. 25).

The Vikings finished with a program-best 22 wins against four losses.

In a Round 1 game, the No. 5 Seed Vikings fell to host La Jolla, 10-6, to end their season.

“We are extremely proud of the grit and pride that they played with,” said Uriel Villa, following the CIF D2 loss. “We told them that this comeback isn’t impossible and at one point we were down by five. We got within two and made it interesting, we fought and started to use our speed finally in the second half.

“We drew about 20 ejections and their six on five defense was just on point and we didn’t execute. That was the difference.

“We couldn’t be more proud. It’s humbling. It doesn’t take away the success that we had that was just getting here and only two teams can make it to the finals. I’m sad, but proud.”

The CIF title game started out for Murrieta Valley exactly like the Downey start in the semifinals against El Toro.

Murrieta Valley jumped out to a 4-0 lead like Downey’s 3-0 lead in the semis.

Leading the way for the Vikings was senior 2 Meter player Aleaha Gonzalez and sophomore utility Marissa Fierro with two goals each, while senior utility Alyson Rouse and junior attacker Alia De La Mora had a goal each.

The Nighthawks had four different players score the four goals in a seven-minute period.

After the 1-0 Murrieta Valley lead, Downey senior attacker Berlynn Mann was wide of the goal at the 4:55 mark for its first shot of the game.

The Knighthawks came right back and scored two goals within a minute and a half for the 3-0 lead.

The first of the two goals came on a 5-meter shot by the Nighthawks River Elliott and the second was a long shot way outside from Grace Boyer.

With a six-on-five, Mann tried a lob shot that just missed after their third goal.

Another long shot was scored by the Nighthawks with 1:50 left in the opening period to lead, 4-0.

The Vikings finally got on the scoreboard on a 6-on-5 advantage by Alia De La Mora with 1:19 left in the first to trail, 4-1.

The Vikings were outscored, 3-1, in the second period.

Murrieta Valley added another goal for the 5-1 lead with 4:19 left in the half.

With 3:53 left in the opening half, Aleaha Gonzalez put a skip shot in for the Vikings second goal to trail, 5-2. Gonzalez took the pass from De La Mora.

Murrieta Valley added two late goals in the last minute and a half to build up a commanding, 7-2 lead at the half.

Over three minutes went by in the third period before the Vikings would score, to cut into the 7-2 lead.

Fierro connected for a goal on a skip shot to the left side of the net to trail, 7-3.

That goal was followed by a 5-meter penalty shot by Fierro for her second goal of the game on a skip shot with 3:01 left to climb within three goals, 7-4, heading into the final period.

The Vikings defense held the Nighthawks scoreless in the period.

Early in the fourth, the Nighthawks scored their eighth goal of the game with just 1:20 elapsed in the period to lead, 8-4.

With just under four minutes left, Downey made it interesting with a goal from Rouse on a cross pass from De La Mora to trail, 8-5.

“Being down, it kind of motivated me to kind of keep pushing and swimming across the pool and when I saw that opportunity and I asked for the ball (from De La Mora) and I scored,” Rouse said.

“I think a lot of people would kill to be in our spot going to the finals. It feels good and I know the outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but we did what we could, and we just didn’t come out as the better team (Saturday).”

Aleaha Gonzalez scored her second goal of the game for the Vikings with just 1:35 left in the contest on a long cross from Rouse into the left corner, to finish the scoring at 8-6.

What they said:

Downey senior goalie Maya Jennings: “We did have opportunities, and we were able to help each other out, but we were a little confused on too focused on probably stopping the ball.

I’m glad we came back the way we did and there were a lot of opportunities that we had.

I feel like a little gosh darn how this game turned out. Honestly, I’m glad we made it this far.”

Downey senior defender Chloe Gonzalez: “I think it’s really important to see the farthest the program has come being in division 2 and being a finalist. It’s definitely something we are proud of to get to the finals.

To be in a 24-team bracket and be the top two, that’s definitely a lot of improvement, especially since the start of our season was a little rough. People didn’t really expect us to get this far. It’s definitely something to be proud of.”

Downey senior attacker Berlynn Mani: “I think we were a good reflection of our coaches and their hard work that they put in the program. Unfortunately, it wasn’t shown (Saturday), but throughout the whole season our record, our memories I think it was astonishing what we showed how strong and committed our coaches were on not giving up.

After (Murrieta Valley) scored their (first) goals, it just fired me up more to try to get my teammates back on their feet. I always go by the motto, ‘leave everything in the pool’ and I think that’s what I did.

I think the program is really good right now and not everybody gets to CIF and not everybody plays for division 2 and I’m really proud of playing with my teammates. I think they are amazing people.”

Downey girls water program on the rise