By Matthew Robinson
CHATSWORTH- Friday night’s game between the Chatsworth Chancellors and the Arleta Mustangs will go down as one of the more bizarre games of the 2026 Los Angeles City Section season. First, the Chancellors (2-1) recorded their first shutout of Head Coach Shawn Johnson’s era (2025-present) with their 32-0 shutout of the Arleta Mustangs. Second, with the night’s win, the Mustangs (2-1) are no longer undefeated. Third, there were two safeties recorded by the Chancellors, one on defense and the other on special teams.
It is a rare feat in football to record even one safety in a game, but two? One of the few football players on this earth who knows anything about recording safeties in a game is former Los Angeles Rams defensive end and star of the 1980s hit TV show Hunter Fred Dryer, who had two safeties in one game in 1973 for the Rams. And finally, who knew it would take only a safety (for a mere two points) halfway through the second quarter to beat one of the most high-octane offenses (Arleta) in the entire Los Angeles City Section?
The Chancellors emotionally, mentally, and physically needed last night’s blowout win over the Mustangs since they went through the rinse cycle last week against the Westlake High Warriors. Against the Warriors, nothing went right for them on both sides of the ball as they were sliced and diced by the Warriors 49-14 on the road. But this week, the Chancellors did the slicing and dicing as their running game was on point, their passing game was present enough to give their quarterback some confidence going into next week’s game against Sylmar, and their defense played lights-out football for four quarters.
Outside of the Chancellors program, not too many people know of the collective talents of their main running backs. For one thing, it’s very early in the season; second, their running backs in person and on social media maintain very low profiles. But on the field last night, the visibility of junior Donald Foster (15 carries for 124 yards and 1 TD) and senior Jacob Martinez (13 carries for 109 yards and 2 TDs) was live and in living color. Those two were the main parts of a running game that annoyed and pestered the Mustangs’ defense to the tune of 38 carries for 249 yards and 3 scores.
Johnson is aware of the collective talents of Foster and Martinez, and he knows that the Chancellors’ offensive success is predicated on those two running backs’ weekly performances.
“That’s what we hold our hat on is that run game; we have a two-headed monster,” Johnson expressed. “It’s good to see all the development that you have been putting in [during] the offseason showcase on a great team like Arleta.”
Martinez is a blue-collar running back with good field vision and deceptive speed, and last night those skills helped him have one of the better games of his career at Chatsworth. His running style is reminiscent of someone who chips away at a defense with short runs and then, out of nowhere, a big run of 40 yards or more comes out of his agile and energetic lower body. He had 11 runs of 6 yards or less (two of them were for touchdown runs) and a big 56-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter. But as mentioned before, Martinez doesn’t play this game for glory or statistics; it’s about teamwork for the two-year varsity running back.
“I give credit to the whole team; it’s not just me, we’re all brothers; if I score, we all score,” Martinez asserted.
As for Chancellors junior quarterback Luis Becerra, his night wasn’t pretty or cosmetic, but he was effective enough to make next week’s opponent (Sylmar) do some thinking about what kind of damage he can do with his left arm and feet. Against Arleta, he went 6 of 15 for 67 yards and 1 touchdown pass. On the ground, he carried 6 times for 6 yards and he was sacked twice. After the game, Becerra was asked how it felt to lend a helping hand to the Chancellor running game, plus he gave the public some insight into what Chatsworth football is about in 2026.
“It [helping Foster and Martinez on offense] feels great,” Becerra said. “It’s something that we do here at Chatsworth; we just keep working,” Becerra said.
As for Arleta, they came into this game with a 2-0 record by way of bullying their first two opponents in the Canoga Park Hunters (Week 0) and Bernstein Dragons (Week 1). The Mustangs had 748 combined offensive yards and 13 touchdowns against the Hunters (406 and 7 scores) and Dragons (342 and 6 scores), but last night the Mustangs had immense trouble getting any kind of rhythm or consistency on offense. For most of the game, the Mustangs went through offensive drives where they had a decent gain on one play and then a tackle for loss by the Chancellor defense or an incomplete pass on the next play. Arleta’s All-City caliber offensive players, senior quarterback Jesse Rios and junior wide receiver Alexander Gonzalez, couldn’t connect on a consistent basis all night. Those two will be a problem for the defenses of their remaining schedule, but last night not so much.
For those who weren’t present, they would think this game was an easy blowout win for the Chancellors, but that is far from the truth. The game’s first points came via a safety halfway through the second quarter and the Chancellors didn’t score their first touchdown until the tail end of the second quarter. The first half of this game was a battle of the defenses where tackles for loss, short gains (passing and running plays) by both offenses, three-and-outs, and punts were the visuals the home and visitor crowds were given.
Chatsworth, on their first true scoring opportunity of the night (early in the second quarter), had the ball inside the Arleta 5-yard line on fourth down. Becerra took the snap and then handed off to Martinez, the running back then ran to his right after getting hit in the hole by Mustangs defensive tackle Gilberto Gonzalez. Over on his right, he was met with more menacing Mustangs as inside linebacker Damion Favela hit the runner first, then defensive back Samuel Mendez-Perez grabbed Martinez around his midsection and proceeded to be dragged by the ball carrier a few inches. Finally, linebacker Michael Gonzalez fell on Martinez to finish the latter off for the three-course tackle.
After that Martinez takedown, the Chancellors defense came up with one of the first momentum swings of the game. Inside the area that the Chancellors just vacated, Mustangs senior center Aleksei Luna sent an errant snap back to Rios, who struggled to recover the loose pigskin. By the time Rios got ahold of the ball in the end zone, he had sophomore inside linebacker Jesse Torres in his face or close enough to him to smell whatever kind of cologne the quarterback was wearing. Then on the quarterback’s back was senior defensive tackle Lenin A. Castano Jr. (.5 sack, safety, fumble recovery). Torres and Casano Jr. combined to drag Rios to the ground near the back of the end zone for a safety, which gave the Chancellors a 2-0 lead with 6:05 left in the second quarter.
Castano Jr. was one of the unsung but key players of the game for Chatsworth, as his shared quarterback sack of Rios for that safety and his play on the offensive line helped his team muscle out a deceptively tough victory over Arleta. Castano Jr.’s versatility will come in handy for the blue and orange this season.
“Last season I only played one side of the ball, [but] this season I’m playing both,” Castano Jr. pointed out. “I learned that my skill set is not just set on defense, that I can be there for my team on both sides of the ball.”
The Chancellors secured their next points when Martinez scored from inside the Arleta 5-yard line, following some decent blocks from junior fullback/offensive guard Christian Washington and Becerra into the end zone for a 2-yard scoring run. With the true extra point kick, the score moved to 9-0 with 17.9 seconds left in the second quarter.
The longest play of the entire first half for the Chancellors was a 23-yard catch by senior wide receiver Danny Torres (2 catches for 31 yards) in the second quarter. In the second half, Torres was barely used because of the success of the running game.
Early in the third quarter, the Chancellors pretty much put the game away when Becerra took the snap and then dropped back to the Arleta 27-yard line, and from there he spotted wide receiver Christopher Avery, who caught the ball as he was turning his body in the air to his left. Avery secured the ball and turned upfield with him putting on the brakes just past the Arleta 15-yard line to stun and then ditch Mendez-Perez. Avery then ran through and then out of the grasp of Mendez-Perez, with the receiver then speeding untouched into the end zone to complete a home crowd-pleasing 25-yard scoring catch. The successful extra point moved the score to 16-0 with 7:02 left in the third quarter.
Then one of the most bizarre plays of the game took place not too long after that Avery touchdown catch. The Arleta punter received the punt snap on fourth down, then his punt was blocked by a Chancellor punt return team player, with the momentum from that punt block sending the punter to the ground. The punter then got up and kicked the ball towards the Chatsworth end zone to try to get the ball to roll out of the end zone for a safety instead of having a Chatsworth defender recover the ball and then run it into the end zone for six points, but the ball didn’t travel as far as the punter wanted it to. Instead, some Chancellor defenders managed with their hands and/or feet to get the ball into the end zone, where one of them recovered the ball for what seemed like a Chancellor fumble recovery for a score, but the referees had other plans. They assessed Arleta with an illegal touching foul and then they awarded the Chancellors a safety. With 5:07 left in the third quarter, the home team had an 18-0 lead.
Martinez late in the third quarter showed again why he will be a force to be reckoned with this season when he took a Becerra handoff, then he followed some blocks on the right side by Washington and Avery, which enabled him to dash untouched in front of the Arleta bench for a 56-yard touchdown run. The Mustangs’ plight was on life support before that scoring run, but after that scoring dash, it was clear that the Mustangs were past the resuscitation stage. With 2:27 left in the third quarter, it was 25-0 Chatsworth.
Castano Jr. early in the fourth quarter came through with another big defensive play when he recovered an Arleta running back Fabian Moran fumble at the Chatsworth 32-yard line with 10:30 left in the game. That fumble recovery by Castano Jr. led to a Martinez 5-yard touchdown run in which the running back finished off the run by diving into the end zone. Martinez’s touchdown run, which was set up by a Foster 53-yard run down the right sideline, gave the game its final tally at 32-0 with 8:50 left in the game.
The Mustangs had plenty of time after the Martinez scoring run to at least get two touchdowns, but they never got the chance because the Chancellors’ defense refused to let the Arleta side of the scoreboard show anything other than a donut, which is football parlance for a shutout.
One of the things that helped the Chatsworth defense uphold their shutout was the fact that not too long after Martinez’s 5-yard scoring run, the referees opted for a running clock. That was a win for the psyche of Arleta at that point in the game and for Chatsworth’s defense.
Next week on Friday, September 18th, the Chancellors will travel to Sylmar (1-2) to take on the Spartans for a 7 PM kickoff. Arleta next Friday will host the Grant Lancers at 3:30 PM. The Lancers are 1-3 and they haven’t played a game since September 3rd, when they were beaten 62-3 by Legacy High School of South Gate.