Heritage now owns longest win streak

It hasn’t been a good omen so far this season to own one of the state’s longest current football win streak. With both Corona del Mar of Newport Beach and St. John Bosco of Bellflower losing on Friday, it took some digging to come up with a new list of current state leaders.

Corona del Mar lost in its game 28-14 to Tesoro of Las Flores, a step up in competition for last year’s 16-0 CIF Division III state bowl champs. The Sea Kings had their win streak snapped at 30 games and probably would have stretched it out to 36 heading into the post-season if they had been able to get past the Titans.

St. John Bosco, the state’s No. 1 team, ventured to the stormy desert of Las Vegas and lost 34-31 to Bishop Gorman in a matchup with national implications. The Braves’ last loss came to Long Beach Poly in the 2012 CIF Southern Section Pac-Five Division semifinals and they had won 19 in a row.

Earlier this season, San Fernando had its 18-game win streak broken in its first game 42-14 by CIF D4 state bowl hopeful Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth while two weeks ago it was two-time CIF D4 state champ Central Catholic of Modesto suffering a loss to St. Mary’s of Stockton that snapped a 16-game win streak. The Raiders rebounded on Friday to win 29-28 in overtime over Manteca in a matchup of schools that both played in the NorCal regional bowl games last season.

So which teams have the longest current win streak after all of that?

Heritage (Menifee) – A 15-14 win over Etiwanda on Friday put the Patriots’ current win streak at 15 and now first in the state. They won their last 10 games last season en route to the CIFSS Central Division title and are 5-0 so far this year. They have a bye next week and then play Elsinore on Oct. 10.

Chaminade (West Hills) – The Eagles’ win over Loyola of Los Angeles in their Mission League opener was their 13th in a row. Their last loss was that 36-0 shutout to Serra of Gardena last season. Chaminade avenged that loss in the CIFSS Western Division final and won its last nine games of the season, including the CIF Division II state bowl contest. They face Alemany in a major showdown next Thursday.

Aptos – Coach Randy Blankenship’s program will also be taking a 13-game win streak into a huge test next week. The Mariners won Friday 70-27 over Clovis East of Fresno, which also was the last team they lost to in a 30-28 contest from a year ago. Aptos won its last nine games of last year in winning the CIF Central Coast Section Division III title and improved to 4-0 this year. The Mariners are playing at Granite Bay on Friday, a definite step up in competition and where former Aptos head coach Ernie Cooper has been coaching for many years (other than last season). Blankenship also will be returning his former Sierra Foothill stomping grounds. He of course began his nomadic coaching career at Nevada Union of Grass Valley.

If all three of those teams were to fall (and two of them definitely could next week), the next in line seems to be Christian of El Cajon, but the Patriots have a tough battle still to go on Saturday of this weekend against Mission Bay. They have won 10 in a row.