Vikings capture CIF D4 Championship

DOWNEY – For the fourth time in school history, the Downey High School football team has brought home a championship.

In dominating fashion, the Vikings defense, and a balanced scoring attack, led the Vikings to a blowout, 40-7, win over undefeated Cypress Friday night (November 25) at Western High in the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 Championship.

After winning the title, the Vikings now advance to the CIF Southern California Division 2-AA Regional Championship.

The Vikings, for the first time in program history, will play for a chance to become state champions, as they host Mater Dei Catholic of Chula Vista Friday (December 2).

The Crusaders (9-4) won the CIF San Diego Section D1 championship with a 34-29 win over Mission Hills.

Mater Dei also won the state championship last season.

“If you want to put a stamp on the program, you could be the state champ,” said longtime Downey coach Jack Williams, of the upcoming regional playoffs. “No one has ever done that in the City of Downey.

“We’ve been in the battles and now we’re playing in the regionals.”

The Vikings lost only two games during the regular season, with the last loss coming to crosstown rival Warren, who won the initial Gateway League title in the new Suburban Valley Conference.

Since that loss, the Vikings have reeled off six consecutive wins for 245 points with an average of 40.8 points per game.

In the wild semifinal, 55-54, win over Cathedral, in which the Vikings defense allowed 546 total yards and six touchdowns, it was a complete 180 degree turn for the title game.

Defense wins championships, and that was the tag line for Downey last Friday night against undefeated Cypress, who came into the game at 13-0.

The Downey defense on that particular night allowed only one touchdown, 281 total yards, intercepted two passes, had eight tackles for a loss, one sack and no scores in the second half. In that game, senior linebacker Peter Debora, who transferred from Santa Fe High, set a school record for tackles in a season with 166.

The defense also forced three turnovers in the game.

“I can’t put it (championship) into words,” said Williams. “Everything we have gone through in the last 12 weeks, it’s just super exciting to be the head guy and just to see them fight for each other is special. I thought this year was going to be a rebuilding year.”

That all changed in the summer during off-season workouts and 7-on-7 competition.

“I knew we had something special in the summer with the 7-on-7’s,” Williams said.

Leading the way for the Vikings was senior quarterback and Oregon State commit Aidan Chiles, with three touchdowns. He was nearly perfect, completing 11 of 14 passes for 261 yards. He also ran for 67 yards on three carries.

Three players led the Vikings with two touchdowns each – senior wide receiver BJ Carey (29, 96 yards receiving), senior Jaylen Crutchfield (10, 76 yards rushing) and Keion Andrew (18 yd. reception, 21 yd. rushing TD).

Chiles’ favorite target was Carey with four catches for 147 yards, while senior receiver Ian Hernandez caught two passes for 56 yards.

Andrew totaled 49 all-purpose yards with 28 receiving and 21 rushing. Juniors Manuel Albidrez (4 carries, 11 yards) and Matthew Picado had 18 and 12 yards in receptions.

Crutchfield led all running backs with 174 yards on nine carries.

Defensively, junior linebacker Johnny Hernandez (8 solo, 4 A) and Debora (7 solo, 3 A) led with 12 and 10 total tackles, respectively. Hernandez had two tackles for losses. Freshman defensive lineman Oscar Aguilar also recorded a sack, while seniors Andrew Reyes and Angelo Miranda each intercepted a pass.

“(Defensively), our goal was to triple team the quarterback (Aidan Houston) and double team their wide receiver (Matthew Morrell),” Williams said. “Our defense was gritty and was getting better every week.”

Houston, who came into the game with 3,069 yards passing (8 Int’s) and 29 touchdowns, was held to 127 yards passing (11 for 22, 2 Int’s), while Morrell (1,627 receiving yards, 15 TDs) had five catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. Houston also ran for 39 yards on 10 carries.

Cypress senior running back Nathan Schneider ran for 71 yards on 12 carries.

Crutchfield started the scoring on Downey’s first possession early in the opening quarter, with the first of his two TDs, a 10-yard score for the 7-0 lead.

On the Vikings’ next possession, Carey scored his first touchdown reception with a 29-yard pass from Chiles at the 5:18 mark of the first quarter for the 13-0 lead.

The defense recovered a fumble near midfield on the ensuing Cypress possession but didn’t capitalize on it.

The Vikings went up by three scores in the third quarter before Cypress could get on the scoreboard, with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Andrew. The two-point conversion run failed, as Downey had a 19-0 advantage with 8:48 left in the half.

Cypress scored its only touchdown of the game late in the second quarter with a 28-yard TD pass from Houston to Morrell, to trail, 19-6,

Crutchfield broke off a 76-yard TD run just 22 seconds after the Cypress score and led at the half, 26-7.

After the touchdown, the Vikings intercepted Houston to stall another drive.

The midway portion of the third quarter was the undoing of Cypress and the championship.

The Centurions started at their own 42 to start the third quarter, and were driving, but a series of misplays and incompletes led to a Downey first down at the Cypress 10.

On the first play from scrimmage by the Vikings, Chiles went on a 90-yard scoring run to seemingly start to put the game out of reach. However, a penalty negated the score.

With momentum on the Downey sidelines, the very next play resulted in a 96-yard touchdown reception by Carey.

Penalties had pushed Downey back to its own four-yard line and Carey got behind the defender and he bobbled the pass but tipped it back to himself.

“That was a huge momentum shift,” explained Williams. The 33-7 lead was insurmountable, and Cypress seemed to let the air out of its game at that point.

Late in the third quarter, with a failed fourth and five at their own 30, the Centurions appeared to be beaten.

“I knew that they were done,” Williams said.

Andrew closed the deal with a 21-yard rushing touchdown with just 33 seconds left in the third quarter and the 40-7 score.

The flood gates opened for Downey as many players took the field to get playoff experience.

“Especially the four-year guys that stuck with it, it was good to see the smiles on their faces,” Williams added. “After the Warren loss it made us realize what we needed to do,” concluded Williams.

Another observation by Williams was the 32 seniors on the team, he figured 24 of them had never beaten Warren in their four years. “That just made them hungrier the rest of the season and into the playoffs.”

Williams also noted that after the Warren game at grading time, there always seemed to be some athletes that couldn’t make the grade to continue with the football program.

He noted that there wasn’t one athlete this season that dropped out because of grades.

A nice honor came to both Downey and Warren this past season, as Chiles and Bears QB, Nico Iamaleava, who is headed to the University of Tennessee, were named Co-MVPs of the Gateway League.