Downey vs Warren is a historic Rivalry in the city of Downey with the first game being played in 1955.
The 67th meeting between the Vikings and the Bears took place on Oct 25 at Justice Stadium, home of Warren High School, with the Vikings winning, 27-7.
In the last few years, this rivalry has gotten more mainstream, growing as one of the best high school rivalries in Southern California.
Within five years, both schools have landed major quarterback recruits with Warren High School landing five-star Nico Lamaleava who now plays for SEC football with the Tennessee Volunteers and Downey High School Landing four-star recruit Aiden Chiles who currently plays for Big Ten school, Michigan State.
Just last year, both schools made history on Oct. 13, 2023 with the Downey vs Warren rivalry being the first high school game played at Sofi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers where Warren came out victorious by a score of 28 to 21.
Heading into this game, Warren built up a winning streak of 6 against their crosstown rivalry winning every game since 2018.
However, the Vikings have now ended their six year winless drought against the Bears.
“Happy for the seniors, a lot of these guys haven’t beaten Warren since they’ve been here,” said offensive coordinator Justin Alegria.
Downey started the game off on offense, starting on their own 15 yard line.
Four-star quarterback Oscar Rios, led the offense rushing for a huge gain getting the ball near the mid field and passing the ball to senior wide receiver Caleb Juregui.
Later passing the ball to senior wide receiver and cornerback. Desmin Joshway-Fairley just 6 yards away from the endzone where Rios ended the drive, rushing in for the touchdown.
Rios ended the game completing 11 out of his 15 passing attempts for 228 passing yards for a touchdown and another 49 yards rushing on seven carries and for two touchdowns.
After going 7-0 up on the first drive, the Downey Vikings kicked an unexpected onside kick.
“It was supposed to be a porch kick in the middle. It was supposed to go 20 yards deeper but the kicker missed it and we got lucky” stated head coach Jack Williams.
After recovering the onside kick, the Vikings got the ball in the midfield and started driving down the field with the drive ending with another Rios rushing touchdown.
With just 30 seconds left in the first quarter, the Bears got on the board making the score 14-7 still in favor of the Vikings.
This will be the only touchdown the Bears will score because the Vikings’ stops on 4th downs and even stopping a touchdown on 4th and stopping multiple 1st downs.
“You know, we play not our best football in our first drive and I said if we play our best football were going to shut them the rest of the way” Said defensive coordinator Thomas Hollington
But soon after the second quarter started, Rios passed a 46-yard to alJuregui making the score heading into half, 21-7, in favor for the Downey Vikings.
There was only one touchdown scored in the second half with it being an early fourth quarter with a 2 yard touchdown from senior running back/ middle linebacker Bernardo Blanco.
Downey ended their six game winless drought against their rivals and now has a chance to win a league title for the first time in 8 years.
