By Matthew Robinson
CHATSWORTH – Before last night’s contest, few people outside of the El Camino Royals program gave them much of a chance to beat the Chatsworth Chancellors. One reason floating around the West Valley the week leading up to the contest was that the Royals were 2-5 coming into the game, which included a two-game losing streak. In that two-game losing streak, the Royals were outscored 66-20 by the likes of Granada Hills and the big bad wolf of San Fernando Valley high school football, the Cleveland Cavaliers. But last night, that two-game losing streak and their unsavory overall season record meant nothing to the Royals. The Royals used a punishing running game and a stingy defense to beat Chatsworth 22-6 at Dr. Gjertrudh Smith Field in Chatsworth.
With this win, the Royals’ record moves to 3-5 overall and 1-2 in the West Valley League. After this loss, the Chancellors drop to 5-3 overall and 1-2 in the West Valley League. The Royals and the Chancellors are not in contention for the West Valley League title; everyone knows that Cleveland (8-0, 3-0) is going to win that title. The Cavaliers are projected to beat their remaining opponents, Granada Hills (October 23) and Chatsworth (October 30), which will give them their first outright West Valley League title since the truncated 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic season. But it’s a good bet the Royals could care less about the West Valley League title right now; they are more concerned with playing for their seniors, winning games, and their playoff seeding.
A key to the Royals’ victory last night was their marathon offensive drives that kept the Chancellors’ offense on the sidelines for much of the game. For weeks, the Chancellors have beaten down opposing defenses with their own time-consuming offensive drives led by their three-running-back attack, but in the week leading up to the game, the Royals’ offensive and defensive coordinators did their homework to minimize the damage the Chancellors’ offense could inflict on them.
Royals sophomore running back Raul Berdon was a sight to see against the Chancellors’ defense. He carried the ball 23 times for 160 yards, with many of his runs setting up touchdowns for his team. Out of his 23 carries last night, he was only tackled for a loss once and 15 of his carries went for five yards or more. Berdon is an athletic and speedy running back in excellent physical shape. He finished many of his runs with the same speed and intensity he started with when he was handed the ball by his quarterback. By the fourth quarter, Chatsworth’s defense was tired of him and his boundless energy. He is a well-coached, well-conditioned, and mature running back who is wise beyond his years.
Royals Head Coach Rick Hayashida spelled out the type of season that Berdon has had so far, and he believes that due to the talented sophomore’s performances in the Royals’ last two games (versus Cleveland last week and then Chatsworth last night) that he will be one of the main cogs in the Royals’ offense going forward.
“Raul is our leading returner from last year,” Hayashida said. “He had 138 yards against Cleveland last week, so yeah, you can see the potential. He has a lot of ability, and we are going to start to give him the rock a lot more.”
Then there was senior running back Devin Del Toro, who carried the ball 9 times for 45 yards and two scores last night. Del Toro’s two touchdown runs were pivotal as they came in the first quarter and early in the fourth quarter. His first-quarter scoring run helped establish that the Chancellors’ defense was going to have to put up with not only Berdon, but with Del Toro’s punishing and nifty running style. And his fourth-quarter scoring run gave the Royals a 22-6 cushion that crushed any momentum Chatsworth thought they had.
Del Toro is one of three members of the Royals’ football family (a coach and two players) who have ties to Chatsworth High School. Del Toro was a member of the 2024-2025 Chatsworth varsity football teams. Del Toro was the Chancellors’ leading rusher in 2024 with 531 yards on 113 carries and four scores in 2024. But in 2025, Del Toro didn’t get the carries he wanted as two other running backs (both of whom were Chatsworth’s main ball carriers last night) cut into his playing time and carries, so he transferred to El Camino Real after the 2025-2026 school year. Hayashida was the head coach of the Chancellors in 2018, and during that season the orange and blue went 5-8, which included a Cinderella-esque run in the playoffs. That ’18 team made it all the way to the semifinals of the Division III playoffs, where they lost 27-15 to Fremont. Then there is Royals junior left offensive guard and defensive end Jayden Williams, who was a member of the 2025 Chancellors team as well. Del Toro and Williams had to sit out five games this 2026 season to comply with the Los Angeles City Section transfer rules.
“Del Toro is a transfer from this school [Chatsworth], and this is only his second game,” Hayashida revealed. “We’re getting better at the right time.”
Hayashida, along with his offensive coordinator, played the role of weather forecasters as they preferred to run the ball last night as opposed to letting his quarterback Gabriel Varga (three for six for 25 yards passing last night) and his receivers Elijah Tolbert (13 catches for 258 yards and four scores coming into the game) and Donovan Carrillo (14 catches for 173 yards and one score coming into the game) be the focal points of the Royals offensive attack last night. For the record, Tolbert had no catches last night, but he did carry the ball twice for 17 yards on jet sweep plays. As for Carrillo, he was targeted once, but the pass fell incomplete.
“[Running the ball was] the game plan [for tonight] because of the wind more than anything else,” Hayashida pointed out. “We thought we could run on them and sure enough we were able to run the ball [successfully].”
The Royals collected 264 yards of total offense against the Chancellors’ defense, with 239 yards coming from the running game. As for the Royals’ defense, they held the Chancellors’ offense to 141 yards and just one touchdown. The Chancellors came into last night with a 245.4 yards rushing per game average and an average of three rushing touchdowns per game, but they finished last night’s game with just 120 yards rushing and one score on the ground. No team on the Chatsworth schedule coming into this game was tougher on their offense than the Royals’ defense was last night.
The Chancellors’ most talented player, junior running back Donald Foster, was absent last night due to intense pain in his lower left leg. He was wearing a walking boot on his left foot yesterday because of an injury he suffered against Sylmar in game four of the season on September 18th. He has missed the Chancellors’ last four games (Santee, Taft, Granada Hills, and El Camino Real). The Chancellors have gone 2-2 in Foster’s absence. The Chancellors have moved on without his services in these past four games, but they are a different team without Foster and during last night’s game, was clearly evident. No running back on the Chatsworth team has Foster’s speed, moves, athleticism or ability to change the complexion of games.
But to be honest, even as talented as Foster is, the Royals would have beaten the Chancellors even if he had played last night because the Royals were on a mission throughout the game on both sides of the ball. The Chancellors’ defense couldn’t stop the Royals’ running game and the Chancellors had a hard time getting into the red zone, getting a rhythm with their running game, and Chatworth’s passing game is not good enough to beat defenses on its own without the help of Foster and running backs Jacob Martinez and Jonathan Velasquez.
Martinez needed 93 yards rushing in last night’s game to give him 1,000 yards for the season, and he got those necessary yards, but they came with a price. Take away his 30-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and he had 14 carries for 63 yards. Carry after carry last night, Martinez was either getting gang-tackled, hit hard, or finding it hard to consistently get more than three yards on many of his carries. Martinez averaged 130 yards rushing per game coming into the El Camino Real game, but when the game was over, he had 93 yards on 15 carries. As for Velasquez, he had just 15 yards on five carries, with three of those carries being short gains of two yards (1), one yard (1), and no gain (1).
Credit for the evening the Royals’ defense had against the Chatsworth offense goes to the likes of junior inside linebacker Luke Ulibarri, who led the Royals in tackles with 14 (three solos, 11 assists), and he also had one interception, which took place in the fourth quarter. Ulibarri, who is the Royals’ leading tackler with 146 tackles in eight games, may lead the entire Los Angeles City Section in tackles by the end of the season. Del Toro, in addition to his running back duties, is also a linebacker. He was in on 6 tackles (one solo, five assists) last night. Junior free safety Ryan Tabolsky seemed to be everywhere last night, especially as a run defender. He was in on five tackles (one solo, four assists).
After the game’s opening kickoff, the Royals started their first offensive drive of the game. And that drive would swallow up over seven minutes of game clock. The possession, which was a 12-play, 65-yard drive, culminated with a Del Toro one-yard touchdown run to the right side of the Royals’ offensive line. With Berdon’s two-point conversion run, the score went to 8-0 with 4:27 left in the first quarter.
The Royals added to their lead when Varga took the snap and burrowed his way into the end zone behind some blocks from the left side of the offensive line for a one-yard scoring run. Royals freshman kicker Dylan Salcedo sent the extra point kick through the uprights to give the visitors a 15-0 lead with 6:29 left in the second quarter. Who knew at the time that 15 points would be all that the Royals would need to win this game?
Deep into the third quarter, Chatsworth got a gift they would eventually take advantage of on their ensuing offensive drive. On fourth down from the Royals’ 45-yard line, Varga tried to get a hold of a bad snap from his long snapper. Varga ended up getting his hands on the ball inside the Royals’ 25-yard line. Near the 28-yard line, he tried to punt the ball, but it only went five yards forward, where it was recovered at the 33-yard line by Chancellors defensive lineman Ethan Rosales.
Two plays after Rosales’ recovery of a bad punt attempt, Martinez took a handoff from quarterback Luis Bercerra (three for five for 21 yards, one interception) and then ran to his right. But not finding much room to run on the right side, he slightly cut back to his left, where he ran through or past four tackle attempts with Royals defensive back Jaden Palma being the last defender near him, but Palma never laid a hand on Martinez during the last 20 yards of the run. Martinez’s 30-yard touchdown run, and the bad snap which led to a botched extra point attempt, put the score at 15-6 with 5:18 left in the third quarter.
Del Toro turned out the lights on Chatsworth’s comeback hopes when he followed the blocks of three of his offensive linemen and a tight end into the end zone for a five-yard scoring run. Del Toro’s second touchdown run of the game and Salcedo’s true extra point kick put the final score at 22-6 with 11:04 left in the game.
A turnover on downs (Chatsworth’s second-to-last offensive drive of the game), a Ulibarri interception on the Chancellors’ last offensive drive of the game, and two time-killing drives by the Royals offense helped end the game.
The Royals will host the Taft Toreadors next week on Friday, October 23rd at 7:15 PM, while the Chancellors will travel to the Lake Balboa area to take on the Birmingham Patriots for a 7:30 PM meeting on October 23rd as well. Those games will be huge for both teams in their quest to get solid or decent seeds for the playoffs.
