By George Hernandez
(Downey) – Antonio Ruiz scored four times for the Vikings in their 53-24 victory over California Friday night at Downey High School.
The Vikings got the ball first and on the first play of the game quarterback Aiden Chiles hit Tryse Redford for 48 yards and the next play Ruiz scored his first touchdown of the game on a two-yard run. A missed extra point made it 6-0.
On a short kick Downey recovered the ball but couldn’t put points on the board. After a Cal punt Isiah Blair took a jet sweep five yards to make it 12-0 after a two point conversion failed.
The Condors got it going on offense and running back Zeth Arellano took a reverse 37-yards to paydirt to make it 12-7.
Downey scored just 30-seconds later when Chiles found Ruiz to make it 18-7 after another missed two point conversion.
Cal used the ground and pound and some short passes from quarterback Jonthan Morales to get in the end zone again when Vance Johnson took it to the outside from 10-yards out and make it an 18-14 game early in the second quarter.
Ruiz answered back for the Vikings this time on runs of eight and twelve yards to make it 33-14 with just over two minutes left in the half.
Johnson, now at safety for the Condors, picked off a Chiles pass with 16-seconds left in the half and Cal capitalized with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Morales to Michael Zuniga putting the score at 33-24 at halftime.
The Downey defense came to life in the second half only allowing a field goal and putting Morales in check with him going 3 of 10 for just 28-yards.
Chiles scored late in the third quarter on a 28-yard run and a fumble recovery taken into the end zone by Jaylon Gray put the game out of reach at 47-24.
Downey added another score in the fourth when relief quarterback Noah Perez hit Sharif Bell for a short three yard touchdown pass making it 53-24.
Chiles finished 14 of 22 for 303-yards a touchdown and a interception. Ruiz had 136-all purpose yards to go with the four scores. Redford chipped in on offense with 107-receiving yards.
Morales who started off 7 of 9 finished 11 for 22 on the night for 118-yards and a touchdown pass. Arellano and Johnson combined for 96-yards and two touchdowns.
Nathaniel Alarcon had two sacks for the Condors and Derrick Perez shut down his side of the field.
Cal will go home to face Northview next week while Downey will stay home and take on Hart.
U funny . All are kids are from Whittier. Ask warren what happened when we played our Whittier kids vs them Downey boys. They cried we ran it up. They had to go out and grab 50 transfers in two years to get us. Don’t believe me go investigate Cifss.org transfers. We will get in DELETED el sancho
“La Serna still runs this league”
You guys were really running things against Warren. And before you start complaining about Warrens transfers. How many of your starting lineup are actually in La Serna boundaries? … Yeah that’s what I thought!
Downey shaking losing by almost 30? A few mistakes and it would of went the other way around. LOL CLOWN. I was at this game and it should of been worse. Downey got 2 TD’s called back and on one of Cals drives they gave them two PI calls that were BS. Cal is not legit. They have one kid and that’s Vance. Stop him and they have zero offense. La Serna still runs this league.
NFHS cameras are connect to a building and are motion detected. You set a timer for when you want it to record and than it records and follows motion. I reached out about that and thats what I got, lol
dont discredit CAL
they had Downey shaking… couple errors and the game got out of hand…. funny how people exaggerate
CAL is that good… downey is overrated
sorry to burst your bubble
Why can’t Downey find someone who can work the camera on the NFHS Network ? Just watch a few minutes of a game and you will be dizzy for a week.
Does Warren even have a kid on the team that lives in the city of Downey ?
@warrenbearnuteater
Thats what they said last year as well, Warren is going to blow Downey out. We shall see
@gamer. No not even close. Cal is weak
Warren will destroy Downey wait and see.
It’s like boxing Downey like a good crusierweight while Cal is a good welterweight. Of course the crusierweight is gonna beat them up.
At what level is that? Not a very good level.
Trailing 33-24 at the half meant Cal was right there with one of the best teams in the SGV. Downey is always loaded and well coached and in my opinion under rated. The clash between Downey and Warren will be something to look forward to.
Downey is on another level. The speed and size was too much for them after playing a real good first half. The way they played the first half they beat most of the teams at their level.
No surprise. Too much hype with Cal.