Football: Arleta showed it has championship mettle

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The question that kept popping into my head as I watched Arleta systematically take apart Franklin in the City Invitational final Friday night was this: How would the Mustangs have fared in the City Championship playoffs?

Its body of work, from the beginning of the season to the end, certainly suggests Arleta could’ve competed in the upper bracket. Need more convincing? Well, check out these numbers...

Arleta outscored its opposition 557-100 and its smallest margin of victory was 17 points against Sylmar which, last I checked, made the upper division playoffs. The Mustangs posted three shutouts and won 12 of their 14 games by at least three touchdowns.

Sure, the East Valley is one of the weakest leagues in the City, but Arleta’s dominance can’t be dismissed. One characteristic of a championship-caliber team is being able to play at a high level game in and game out. No team did that as consistently as Arleta this year.

What about finishing strong, you say? Arleta earned plenty of style points in its curtain call, piling up 400 yards of offense against a Panthers squad that hadn’t lost to a City opponent all season (its only defeats were to Harvard-Westlake and Grace Brethren of the Southern Secton).

Hindsight is always 20-20, but I can understand why Arleta Coach Jeff Engilman opted for the lower division. His squad finished 3-6 last year and it seemed unrealistic to think he’d right the Mustangs’ ship this quickly.

So is Arleta good enough to be playing in the championship final? We’ll never know for sure, but I doubt it. How far the Mustangs would’ve advanced is anyone’s guess because, let’s face it, the best team doesn’t always win. But they can take pride in knowing, for 14 straight weeks, they were better--much better--than the other team.

Arleta sure looked impressive Friday, and, in retrospect, clearly belonged in the upper division. With their quarterback and leading rusher returning, I’ll be shocked if the Mustangs don’t jump to the championship bracket next fall. Then they won’t have to wonder what might have been.

-- Steve Galluzzo