Sports briefs: Early struggles in football

The Downey High School football team fell to 1-2 this season after a 36-15 home loss to Mira Costa last Friday night.The Vikings will host the Millikan Rams (2-1) this evening at Downey. The Rams are coming off a 32-25 win against Western. Downey was led on offense by Jorge Reyna's 7/15 passing for 159 yards and one touchdown. Reyna suffered a knee injury and was unable to finish the game. Justin Huff led Downey's rushing attack with 103 yards on 20 carries and one touchdown. The Viking receiver corps were led by Tristan Esparza's one reception for 67 yards, Eduardo Preciado's one reception for 31 yards and Jacob Cook's one reception for 19 yards. Mario Galvan was 1/1 on PAT attempts. The Viking defense was led by Tristan Esparza's one solo and 13 assisted tackles, Patrick Smith's three solo and eight assisted tackles, Ricky Wong's five solo and four assisted tackles, Chris Blanton's nine assisted tackles and Charles Early's one solo and seven assisted tackles. Despite their second loss of the season, the Vikings are still ranked third in the latest C.I.F. Southeast Division poll. Norwalk (3-0) stayed No. 1 after defeating Warren 47-6, La Serna (2-1) was second, Muir (1-1) was fourth and Santa Fe (3-0) was fifth to round out the top five. Rounding out the rankings was Bonita (2-1) at sixth, S.G.V.L. foe Dominguez (2-1) at seventh, Los Altos (3-0) eighth, La Mirada (0-3) ninth and Diamond Ranch (2-1) was tenth. Downey hopes to get back on track this evening with a win over the Moore League's Millikan Rams at Allen Layne Stadium. ** Warren High School's football team lost to Norwalk at Excelsior High School last Friday, 47-6. With the loss, Warren now stands at 0-2 and Norwalk improved to 3-0. Norwalk maintains their No. 1 ranking in the latest C.I.F. Southeast Division poll. Norwalk jumped out to a 19-point lead in the first quarter and followed that up by scoring 14 points in the second quarter. The Lancers led 33-0 at halftime. Things slowed down a bit in the third quarter as Norwalk scored a touchdown and converted the PAT attempt to lead 40-0 after three quarters. The Lancers scored their last touchdown of the evening at the 9:04 mark of the fourth quarter. The PAT attempt was good and Norwalk led 47-0. Warren scored a touchdown on the last play of the game on a Mathew Romero one-yard score. There was no PAT attempt and the game ended at 47-6. The Bears were led on offense by senior quarterback Mike Vega's 3/10 passing for 17 yards. Junior Albert Molina carried the ball eight times for 56 yards and senior Simon Figueroa ran seven times for 39 yards. Figueroa also caught three passes for 17 yards. The Bears were led on defense by senior Moses Alaniz. Alaniz was voted defensive player of the game. Norwalk was led on offense by senior standout running back Rashad Penny. Penny ran for 223 yards on 12 carries and scored four touchdowns. Sophomore Christopher Walker also contributed to the Lancer ground game effort by rushing for 85 yards on six carries and scored two touchdowns. Warren will face Rosemead (1-1) this evening at Warren at 7 p.m. The Panthers are coming off a 41-33 home victory against South Torrance. ** The Warren High School boys' cross country team has gotten off to a fast start. No pun intended. Warren participated in the Laguna Hills Cross Country Invitational last Saturday and placed second with a team time of 1:19:51. Canyon of Anaheim finished in first place with a team time of 1:19:40, Arcadia finished third with a team time of 1:20:16, Dana Hills finished fourth with a team time of 1:20:16 and El Toro finished fifth with a team time of 1:20:31. There were 76 teams running at this competition. The top five runners for the Bears at the Laguna Hills Invitational were junior Ben Gonzalez at 15:37, junior Jonathan Rodriguez at 15:42, junior Andres Barragan at 15:52, sophomore Matthew Sanchez at 16:16 and senior Michael Hernandez at 16:21. According to these times, four of Warren's top five runners are underclassmen. Warren is currently ranked fourth in the latest C.I.F. Division I poll, down from the No. 5 spot from the previous week. The Bears will participate in the Woodbridge Invitational tomorrow at Estancia High School. The race will begin at 9:54 p.m. and feature 26 of the top 42 teams in PrepCalTrack's Hot 100. Coach Miranda and his runners are excited for this event and plan to run fast times. Miranda said, "we will see how good we are this Saturday." Several teams from out of state such as Centennial (NV), Central Valley (WA) and Desert Vista (AZ) will be competing at this event as well. Warren will start S.G.V.L. competition in their first cluster meet next Thursday, Sept. 26, at Holydale Park. Warren's goal for this season remains the same: "compete for the Division I title and get to state." ** The Downey High School girls' volleyball team currently has an overall record of 3-5. Five of these games were played at the Molten Classic Tournament which took place Sept. 2-7. In that tournament, the Lady Vikings lost to North Torrance 18-25, 14-25 and 20-25 but defeated Cerritos on the same day 25-19, 25-23 and 25-16 to even their record at 1-1. The Lady Vikings then defeated Fullerton at the same tournament 25-15, 25-16 and 25-18 before losing to Canyon of Anaheim 15-25, 22-25 and 19-25. Downey finished the Molten Classic by defeating Mayfair 25-17, 25-12, 21-25, 24-26 and 15-13 to finish the tournament at 3-2. Downey lost to Valley Christian at Valley Christian on Sept. 10, 12-25, 21-25 and 20-25 and were defeated by La Serna at Downey 22-25, 25-21, 25-20, 16-25 and 15-17 in a five set nailbiter. Downey lost to Cypress at Cypress on Tuesday, 25-27, 20-25 and 20-25 and played Mayfair again yesterday (scores unavailable at press time). The Lady Vikings return three starters from last season. Junior Kimberly Schnars, sophomore Bela Gamboa and junior Amy Crowell are all back with more experience and skill under their belts. Coach Sims has nine new players that either played junior varsity or freshman volleyball last year. Downey was 10-0 last year and are the defending S.G.V.L. champions. "This will certainly be an action packed battle for the title where Warren, Gahr and Paramount will all compete," Sims said. "I'm excited for the new challenges this year. These players are eager to learn the game and continue to improve. I love watching them absorb all the instruction and seeing their skills materialize on the court during matches."

********** Published: Sept. 19, 2013 - Volume 12 - Issue 23