Pius X and St. Anthony Put Their Losing Streaks on the Line : Prep football: Pius X, with a 25-game losing streak, will meet St. Anthony, which has lost 11 in a row.

By DICK WAGNER

Oct. 18, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

When will it end? That is the question still being repeated at Pius X High School, where the football team’s losing streak has reached 25 games. The Warriors will try again at 7:30 Friday night when they play host to St. Anthony, which has lost 11 in a row itself.

“Sure, I think this week will be the week,” Principal Kenneth Johnson said. “Surprisingly, spirit is still up. The mood is great, the cheerleaders are doing a great job and we have a new quarterback.”

The Downey team, in its five losses this season (17-7 to Santa Fe, 20-0 to Warren, 16-0 to Laguna Beach, 7-0 to El Monte and 27-6 to St. Monica) has been much better than in 1989, when opponents almost routinely scored 50 or 60 points.

“We’re right there, an inch away,” maintains Coach Mike Gallegos, who, in his second season, has never let his optimism waver. “We feel it could happen in the next couple of weeks. This week looks good. We’re due.”

Way overdue, some would say. The Warriors have not won since November, 1987, when they beat Cantwell, 42-0, in the last regular-season game. The losing streak started a week later with a 35-10 defeat by Burbank Burroughs.

But the 25-game losing streak is not the longest currently in California. Central Valley High, near Redding, has lost 27 in a row. The state record of 46 consecutive losses was established by Moorpark in 1977-82.

Gallegos, 27, the nose guard on the 1982 Pius X team that was undefeated until the playoffs, prefers not to dwell on the streak.

“We’re just trying to put it together,” he said. “The kids haven’t brought up last year’s scores. This year is a new year and most of the players on the team are new. We’re just focused on getting the first one this season.”

This season’s defeats have been tougher for the Warriors to take because they have been much closer. “They really nag you,” Gallegos said. “But every week is a new week.”

Led by end Phil Ward, the Warriors have improved greatly on defense, but not enough to offset anemic offensive production. “We’ve moved the ball on everybody; it’s just a matter of punching it in,” Gallegos said. The Warriors have punched it in for touchdowns only twice.

Depth also has been a problem. Eight Warriors start on both offense and defense, including Ward, who also plays fullback; tailback Devon English, who also plays cornerback, and sophomore quarterback Kelron Sykes, who doubles as a defensive end.

Injury-plagued St. Anthony of Long Beach is 0-6 this season and, like Pius X, is 0-1 in the Camino Real League. The Saints have not won since beating the Warriors, 50-0, a year ago.

Perhaps remembering that game and also taking into account his own team’s vulnerability, St. Anthony Coach Ralph Godfrey had only nice things to say about Pius X this week.

“I think they’re the best 0-25 team around,” Godfrey said. “I think they’re well coached and they’ve got some good kids. They’ve just got to get over the hump.”

Godfrey has his own hump to scale. “The kids on our team are frustrated, and the feeling around campus is ‘Is it going to happen?’ ” he said.

The Saints have had about a dozen players sidelined with injuries, the coach said, but quarterback Garnett Overby, who was hurt in the opener, will be back against the Warriors.

A pleasant surprise in the unpleasant St. Anthony season has been 5-foot-6, 125-pound sophomore receiver/defensive back Ricky Sanchez. “He’s done some fantastic things,” Godfrey said. Last week, in a 54-17 loss to Verbum Dei, Sanchez’s catches and the running of Lincoln Sii accounted for 184 of St. Anthony’s 200 yards. Sanchez also had an interception.

“We’re taking this game as seriously as any other,” Godfrey said.

“We’re pretty pumped up,” Gallegos said.

They are two men who hope that next week they won’t still be hearing the question they have come to dread.

PIUS X RECORD

7 Santa Fe 17

0 Warren 20

0 Laguna Beach 16

0 El Monte 7

6 St. Monica 27

ST. ANTHONY RECORD

9 Millikan 29

0 Bellflower 33