DOWNEY – In 2017, Downey High School boys’ water polo coach Uriel Villa and his coaching staff had a goal – to compete for CIF Championships.

They accomplished that goal six years later and have competed deep into the CIF Southern Section playoffs ever since.

This year’s team is off to a 14-3 start and will be competing for another league title.

The team won undefeated league titles from 2018 through 2023.

The Vikings opened up San Gabriel Valley League action Thursday October 2 against rival Warren (Score unavailable at press time).

Downey just finished its 4th Annual Downey Varsity Tournament last Saturday.

The Vikings swept their way through pool play by defeating Palm Springs (21-10) and Etiwanda (15-10) on Friday (Sept. 27) and easily defeated Vista Murrieta, 17-4, in the semifinals on Saturday (Sept. 28).

However, they were edged out by Brea Olinda, falling, 14-12, in the championship.

“We were the better team, but we just didn’t prove it,” Villa said.

Junior center Matthew Moran led the team with six goals and had two steals in the title game, while junior center Nathan Martinez had four goals and freshman attacker Melvin Carcamo scored twice.

Downey took a 4-3 lead in the opening period of the championship on a pair of goals by Moran, while Carcamo and Martinez added another.

With the score tied, 3-3, Martinez gave the Vikings the one-goal 4-3 advantage 16 seconds before the end of the period.

Each team scored three goals in the second period, as Downey held that same one-goal lead, 7-6.

Moran opened and closed the second period with a goal.

“Overall, we’ve come a long way,” said Moran, referring to the three freshmen players that were on that ’22 championship team. The three were Moran, Nathan Martinez and Leo Garcia.

“In our own way, some of us have gotten faster, some of us have gotten stronger and some of us have gotten smarter. Overall, we’re competitive when we do practice.

“We have four freshmen on varsity now, with one (Carcamo) a starter.”

Moran is only in his fifth game back after an injury earlier this season.

In the third period, Brea outscored the Vikings, 4-3, and took its second lead of the game, 9-8, with 1:50 left in the period.

Moran and Carcamo each scored in the last minute and a half to end up tied, 10-10 heading into the final period.

After Brea took the lead back early in the final period, Moran and Nathan Martinez scored back-to-back goals two minutes apart, to take its final lead of the game, 12-11, as Brea scored the last three goals in the last 1:11 of the game to win the title.

Nathan Martinez spoke of the experience of having Villa as their coach and what he brings to the team.

“It’s really good having him as a coach because he knows the game of polo way better than any of us,” he said. “He teaches us things we don’t know we could do. We’ve been getting better and stronger and learned how to play with each other and making a lot more passes.

“We’re playing more as a team instead of being selfish.”

The semifinal game earlier on Saturday was a much different game, as the Vikings easily won, 17-4, over Vista Murrieta, which was 0-2 in pool play.

Senior attacker Zinadin Rosales led all scorers with four goals for the Vikings and junior attacker Sebastian Lugo had three. Nine different players scored for Downey in the game.

In the two pool play games on Friday, the Vikings opened with a 21-10 win over Palm Springs. Leading the way for the Vikings was Nathan Martinez with a game-high five goals. Twelve other players got into the scoring column for Downey.

In the opening game of the tourney for Downey, Nathan Martinez led with six goals, while Lugo and Moran scored three each for the 15-10 win.

With only six teams in the league, Downey aims to win another title as there only four games remaining before playoffs begin in late October/early November.

Villa, who has either helped coach or played in five CIF Championship games, is assisted by Sage Bertsch, Ayelen Gimenez and Alyssa Amaya.