DOWNEY – In the last preseason game of 2022, the Downey Vikings defeated host St. Paul, 44-23, last Friday night (September 16), as senior running back Keion Andrew of Downey scored four touchdowns to lead the Vikings.

With the win, Downey improves to 4-1 overall, while St. Paul slips to 2-3.

Leading the way for the Vikings was Andrew with 96 yards on eight carries and three scores. The touchdown runs were for 3, 4 and 55 yards.

Andrew also scored on an 87-yard punt return and had 231 all-purpose yards.

Downey senior quarterback Aidan Chiles was 22 for 29 for 290 yards, one interception and a touchdown, while senior wide receiver Bryant Carey caught nine passes for 128 yards and a TD. Chiles also carried the ball three times for 26 yards.

“We started off slow (Friday) and it could have been way better,” said Chiles, who missed multiple games last year with an injury. “We went back into halftime and game-planned and came back out strong and put up what we needed to put up. It was a hard-fought win.

“The defense balled out (Friday) and saved us a lot and had our back the whole game.”

Chiles, who has committed to Oregon State, was asked what he had to look forward to for the rest of the season.

He simply answered – “Week eight, week eight, that’s it. That’s the rivalry game against Warren.”

One of the biggest cross-town rivalry games in all of Southern California will take place Friday, October 14 at Warren.

Vikings sophomore Caleb Jauregui also carried the ball six times for 21 yards and caught two passes for 22 yards.

The leading receiver for Downey was senior Bryant Carey with nine catches for 128 yards and a touchdown. Junior Manuel Albidrez (5 catches for 61 yards) and junior Ian Hernandez (3 catches, 54 yards) were also among six receivers for Chiles.

As a defense, the Vikings sacked St. Paul quarterback Andrew Maushardt four times for 10 yards.

Senior defensive lineman Anthony Irons led the way for the Vikings with two sacks, while freshman defensive lineman Oscar Aguilar and senior linebacker Pedro Debora had seven and five tackles, respectively.

Downey freshman free safety Xavier Rivas also had a 25-yard interception.

Maushardt led the way at quarterback for the Swordsmen, passing for 214 yards (15 for 33, 1 Int.) and carried the ball seven times for 24 yards.

Junior running back Christian Melendez rushed for 105 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown, his second of the season.

Senior wide receiver Aidan Bravo led St. Paul with three catches for 101 yards and junior Orlando Zepeda (150 all-purpose yards) had four catches for 63 yards.

Downey, which starts its first season in the newly revised Suburban Valley Conference, Gateway League, will host Paramount Friday (September 30) after a bye this week.

At that Paramount game, the 10-year anniversary of the 2012 CIF Championship team will be honored. Downey defeated La Serna that year, 33-25.

“I thought we started off slow,” said Downey Football coach Jack Williams, who was losing his voice. “I thought our kids fought back. It’s something good to lead into during league. Being able to be down and come back in the second half and do a good job.

“We came out kind of overlooking St. Paul. In the first half St. Paul did a good job. They did a really good job smacking us in the mouth.”

The Vikings opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 27-yard field goal by senior kicker Isaac Madrid to lead 3-0.

The Vikings extended their lead to 10-0 with two minutes left in the quarter with a 3-yard touchdown run by senior Jaylen Crutchfield and Madrid added the extra point.

On the ensuing kickoff, St. Paul junior wide receiver Orlando Zepeda ran back the return 90 yards, dodging tacklers and outran the defense down the sidelines for the score.

The Swordsmen trailed Downey, 10-7.

St. Paul took its only lead of the game midway through the second quarter on a 19-yard run by junior running back Christian Melendez, giving the Swordsmen a 14-10 lead.

“The game started out good and we came out with enthusiasm in the first half and played well and the second half we just came out flat,” Melendez said. “It was just downhill from there.

“I felt like, personally, the line was doing well actually and the holes were there and I was hitting them and I felt like we had a pretty good rushing game. We have weapons everywhere and we just have to utilize them.”

Downey answered with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Carey from Chiles to re-take the lead, 17-14, with less than a minute in the half. The TD reception by Carey was his seventh of the season and 10th for Chiles, who has thrown for 1,120 total yards passing with only 2 Interceptions.

“It was a great first half, competitive attack and both teams getting after each other and then we imploded,” St. Paul Football coach Rick Zepeda said. “We’ve done it almost for three weeks now. We’re learning, we’re young, but we got to keep going, that’s all there is to it.

“When I think back to the first half, we did a lot of great things. We’ve got a young squad and I naturally felt like we were going to learn this year. But I didn’t think we were going to make as many mistakes that we have.

Zepeda praised his team about the job they did in the opening half.

“The quarterback had a great first half and some great things from our receivers, special teams have been consistent and the defense played well,” he said. “We have things to grow on and we just got to get over the whole ego thing and our pride was hurt and we got to be ready for Loyola in two weeks (Friday September 30).”

The second half was nearly all Downey, as they outscored the Swordsmen, 27-9.

The Vikings scored two more touchdowns for the 30-14 lead, both by Andrew, who has five TDs on the season. The first was a 3-yard score, followed by an 87-yard punt return.

St. Paul opened the fourth quarter with a 31-yard field goal from freshman kicker Jesse Riperto, with nine minutes left in the game to trail, 30-17.

On the next drive, Andrew scored his second touchdown of the game with a 55-yard burst up the middle.

Andrew finished off his big night with his third score, a 4-yard TD run for the 44-17 advantage with three minutes left.

Junior running back Anthony Osorio finished the scoring for St. Paul with a short run with seconds left in the game.