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Football: Does Long Beach Poly’s league winning streak deserve an asterisk?

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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Long Beach Poly could stretch its state-record league winning streak to 75 games on Friday with a Moore League victory over Long Beach Millikan at Veterans Stadium.

But the Jackrabbits might still be No. 2 on the list had Concord De La Salle not played a freelance schedule during five of the seasons it compiled its national-record 151-game winning streak. The Spartans held the state record for longest league winning streak at 62 games when they started playing a freelance schedule in 1998.

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Since its departure from league play, De La Salle was passed by Salinas Palma, which had a 68-game league winning streak from 1988 through 1998 and then Sylmar, which won 69 consecutive league games from 1989 through 1999. Last year, Poly took possession of the record with its 70th consecutive league victory.

But with De La Salle moving into the East Bay Athletic League this year, the Spartans’ league winning streak will pick up where it left off. If De La Salle wins all seven league games this season, it will move back into second place behind the Jackrabbits (assuming Poly goes undefeated in the Moore League).

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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