Downey holds off Modesto in final minute

This is one game film Aaron Zwahlen won't enjoy Monday. Nor will his most of his Downey High teammates.

"It's an ugly 'W' but it's still a 'W' and that's what matters," said Zwahlen, a junior and the state's top passer coming into the game. "I made some mistakes, throwing balls I shouldn't have thrown. We survived, though."

It took an acrobatic interception by cornerback Russell Mitchell in the final minute to seal a 25-21 win over Modesto and give Downey a piece of the Modesto Metro Conference lead.

Downey (5-1, 2-0), No. 7 in The Bee's large-school rankings, and Johansen (4-2, 2-0) play the final night of the regular season. Beyer (3-2, 1-0), idle this week, has Johansen Thursday night.

"We need to stop talking about Beyer and Johansen and focus on the one game we're playing," said Zwahlen, noting Downey's multitude of mental mistakes. "The defense struggled and we picked them up, but the defense is also what gave us some huge plays."

Mitchell's interception was one, as he recognized Kameryn Morris running a drag route across the middle. Seeing that safety Marquez Campbell had the deep receiver, Mitchell raced up to meet Morris — jumping in front of the receiver as the ball arrived.

"They were in trips, and I thought I would have to cover a deep route, but then the outside guy cut inside," said Mitchell, who has three picks in 2011.

His grab at the Downey 34, with 28 seconds left, clinched the victory.

It was a shaky situation at best for the Knights until Mitchell's big play.

Modesto's defense used a variety of tactics to confuse Zwahlen and his receivers. Four Panthers would rush at times, five at others. Sometimes the blitz was up the middle, other times it would come from a defensive end.

Modesto end Brandon Phillips had two sacks and batted three balls at the line, helping make a mess of the Knights' precision passing scheme.

"Our linemen are taught to take the pass rusher off their feet if they jump in the air," Zwahlen said. "But the blitzes were coming from different angles on every play. It had us confused. We're off next week, so we need to prepare ourselves as well mentally as we do physically to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Then there was the coverage, blanket defense that Downey hadn't seen while running roughshod over foes. Defenders were draped over receivers when the passes arrived. Another half-dozen passes were dropped.

Zwahlen, averaging 324 yards and completing 61 percent, threw for 150 yards and was 13 of 28 (46 percent).

"I was happy to see how we came out in the second half, with a lot of enthusiasm," said Zwahlen, whose three TD passes give him 20. It was the fourth week in a row he has not thrown a pick, while tossing 18 TDs.

It looked as if the Knights would have their typical game — they were averaging 62 points a game over the last four weeks — when the defense stopped Modesto on three plays to start the game.

Downey's offense responded with a TD in three plays.

Zwahlen's 34-yard TD to Caleb Lowe three minutes into the game made it 6-0, but the kick hooked left.

It was the last that would be heard from the offense for a while, though.

Modesto's (1-4, 0-1) offense was on the field for 42 of the next 45 snaps — the Panthers held the ball for 18 minutes, 30 seconds, of the first half, and Downey had the ball for just 5:30.

After its initial failure on offense, the Panthers' slogged their way to a 16-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with Blake Perez's 2-yard score. Julian Gallo made the first of his two first-half PATs and the Panthers were ahead 7-6.