SPORTS BRIEFS: Cross country preps for finals

DOWNEY – The Warren High School boys’ and girls’ cross country seasons are winding down. San Gabriel Valley League Finals will be held Wednesday, November 5, at La Mirada Regional Park. C.I.F. Prelims will follow on Saturday, Nov. 15, at Mt. SAC and C.I.F. Finals are scheduled to take place Saturday, Nov. 22, at Mt. SAC as well. Boys’ Coach Ramon Miranda and girls’ coach Jay Waldron are fine tuning their lineups for the last competitions of the season.

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The Warren High School girls’ tennis team is hosting S.G.V.L. Finals this week (scores unavailable at press time). This three day tournament will determine seedings for postseason play. Coach Mary Starksen has had her team improving each day and playing solid team tennis.

The Bears are 17-1 overall and 12-1 in league play. Warren’s only loss was against Downey 10-8 on Oct. 7.

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The Downey Calvary Chapel football team lost to Crean Lutheran of Irvine 39-7 on 10/6. With the loss, the Grizzlies dropped to 4-3 overall and 0-2 in Academy League play. The Grizzlies did not play last week and will travel to Sage Hill of Newport Beach Saturday.

The Sage Hill Lightning are 3-5 overall and 0-2 in Academy League play. The Grizzlies will conclude their regular season schedule against St. Margaret’s at St. Margaret’s next Friday night. The Tartans are 8-0 overall and 3-0 in Academy League play. Coach Welch, his staff and players are looking forward to finishing the season strong. DCC finished last season with an overall record of 2-6.

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The Warren High School football team was shut out by Dominguez last Friday night, 48-0, at Warren. With the loss, Warren fell to 4-4 overall and 1-2 in S.G.V.L. play.

Dominguez improved to 6-2 overall and 3-0 in S.G.V.L. play. Warren will travel to Lynwood tonight to play the Knights. The Knights are 5-3 overall and are 0-3 in S.G.V.L. play.

Warren will finish their regular season against Paramount at Paramount next Friday night. If the Bears want to compete in postseason play, they must win tonight at Lynwood and win next Friday at Paramount. If the Bears lose either game, they are eliminated from postseason play.

Lynwood has already been eliminated from postseason competition. The Knights started the season 5-0 and have currently lost three league games in a row. Lynwood lost to Downey 23-14 on 10/10, lost to Dominguez 47-7 on 10/17 and lost to Paramount 28-24 last Friday, respectively.

In the Dominguez game, Bear quarterback Jordan Yancy completed 5/21 passes for 27 yards. The Warren ground attack accumulated 48 yards on 21 carries. The Bears were held to 75 yards of total offense.

Interestingly, of the four Warren losses this season, the opposing teams combined records are 22-10. Records and results are as follows: St. Paul is 4-4 (24-15), Buena Park is 7-1 (25-0), Downey is 5-3 (49-19) and Dominguez is 6-2 (48-0), respectively.

Of the four Warren wins, the opposing teams combined records are 5-28. Records and results are as follows: Firebaugh is 1-8 (20-6), Western is 1-7 (52-6), Gardena is 0-8 (42-16) and Gahr is 3-5 (47-28). Warren has steadily improved throughout the season. The Bears have challenged the better teams and have soundly defeated less challenging teams.

The Warren High School football team is a work in progress and continues to get better. Coach Lara and his staff continue to work hard each day and the results are starting to show. Warren is certainly a team to watch for next year as many underclassmen have gained valuable game time experience.

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The Downey High School boys’ water polo team defeated Paramount on Tuesday, 12-5, at Paramount Park, improving their record to 9-11 overall and 4-0 in San Gabriel Valley League play.

The win against Paramount sets up a S.G.V.L. championship game against Cerritos next Tuesday at Cerritos Park East. Cerritos is also undefeated in S.G.V.L. play and have certainly been the team to beat in recent years. Downey will need to have strong play from Christian Gomez and goalie Jon Yi to win the league title.

Downey played Whittier yesterday and will play El Rancho later today (scores unavailable at presss time) . The Vikings will have two regular season games left after the El Rancho game today. Downey will play at Cerritos next Tuesday and will conclude their regular season at Western next Friday.

The C.I.F. Division 4 playoff brackets will be released next Sunday morning (11/9) and Downey will be the number one or two S.G.V.L. entry based on the result of the Cerritos game. Downey has defeated Paramount, Gahr, Warren and Whitney in league play to secure their playoff spot.

The Vikings have played well in league and are looking forward to putting it altogether and making a nice run in the Division 4 playoffs.

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The Downey High School football team defeated Gahr last Friday night, 56-21, at Downey to improve to 5-3 overall and 3-0 in S.G.V.L. play.

With the loss, Gahr fell to 3-5 overall and are 0-3 in S.G.V.L. play. Downey traveled to Paramount Thursday night to play a Paramount team that is also 5-3 overall but 2-1 in S.G.V.L. play (score not available). The Pirate loss was a 28-7 defeat against Dominguez at Dominguez on 10/10.

If Paramount wants to win part of another tri-championship, they must defeat Downey tonight and Warren next week. If Downey wants to win a league title, the road goes through Paramount at Paramount tonight and against Dominguez at Downey next week.

In the Gahr game, the Vikings scored early and often. Downey scored four touchdowns in the first quarter and were 4/4 on PAT attempts. Downey led 28-0 at the end of the first quarter. The Vikings added to their lead in the second quarter by scoring another three touchdowns and converting the extra points. Downey led at halftime 49-0.

Gahr finally scored a touchdown in the third quarter and converted the PAT. Downey also scored a touchdown and converted their PAT. Each team scored seven points in the third quarter. The score was 56-7 at the end of the third quarter. Gahr added two fourth quarter touchdowns and PATs to close the gap to 56-21. The game ended with Downey winning 56-21.

The Downey passing attack completed 3/4 passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns. The Vikings averaged 31 yards per completion and scored on 2/3 completed pass attempts. The ground game had 35 carries for 452 yards. Downey averaged close to 13 yards per rush attempt. The Vikings accumulated 543 yards of total offense.

Josh Flores scored two touchdowns, Justin Huff scored two touchdowns, Eddie Preciado scored two touchdowns, Stacy Chukwumezie scored one touchdown and Albert Padilla scored one touchdown. Viking kicker Omar Juarez was 8/8 on PAT attempts and scored 8 points.

 

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Published: Oct. 30, 2014 - Volume 13 - Issue 29

SportsMark Fetter