The non-league schedule was supposed to be their toughest in years.
Coach Jeremy Plaa expected his team to take its lumps over the first few weeks of the season against playoff regulars.
They would need to play their best football each week if they wanted to keep up.
And yet after four weeks, Downey is a perfect 4-0.
Their latest challenger: A completely new opponent in Amador Valley of the North Coast Section. A team that regularly qualifies for the NCS playoffs and last season went 4-0 in the East Bay – Valley League. Friday night was the first ever matchup of the two programs.
“One of the hard things about playing a team like Amador Valley is our kids don’t really know them,” Plaa said. “They don’t know the school, they don’t know what they’re about.”
Though they didn’t know much about the new opponent they knew about their quarterback Tristan Tia, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound three-star recruit with a rocket right arm, quick feet and six Division I scholarship offers.
“We knew we’re gonna have to stop their quarterback, you could tell he was the best player on their team,” Downey quarterback Carson Lamb said. “But all week, we were preparing. The theme of the week was preparation. And you can tell we worked all week. We were locked in, like, probably the best practice we’ve ever had all season.”