A PAL Lake juggernaut?

Who knows what King could have done against PAL Lake Division pass coverage? While his Wildcats went winless last season in the Ocean Division — which sent three teams to the Central Coast Section playoffs — it’s a far cry from the Lake Division, a “C” league that has sent just one team to the postseason every year since its inception in 2009.

No team has every repeated as outright Lake Division champion, mostly due to the reign coming with a promotion to the Ocean. Only two teams have won multiple Lake titles because of this: Hillsdale in 2009 and ’13, and Capuchino outright in ’12 and ’15 with a co-championship in ’11.

In recent years, however, that trend has changed. Since Cap’s last league title, the program has remained in the Lake. The following year, San Mateo took the crown only to remain in the Lake in 2017.

Now, Jefferson is in unprecedented territory heading into 2018. Including Alvarez, the Grizzlies return four first-team all-league players. They also have far more depth than any other team in the league. Hypothetically, if Mills and El Camino combined to make one super roster, Jefferson would still have more players.

“Our team is better than we were last year,” Jefferson head coach Will Maddux said. “We’re just loaded at every position.”

That’s a scary thought. But it’s true. And one that Maddux has earned through three previous years of meticulously cultivating a football culture as the Daly City campus.

Who can challenge the Grizzlies this year?

Woodside seems the likeliest threat, mainly because it’s the only team that possesses a talent that — at least on paper — can stand toe to toe with Jefferson’s Division I prospect, two-way lineman Paul Matavao-Poialii, who at 6-4, 320 pounds is going to be a handful by any measure throughout the PAL, let alone in the Lake Division.

The Wildcats’ answer is guard/defensive tackle Christian Ochoa. While Matavao-Poialii earned all-Lake Division honors on offense last year, Ochoa brandished the Ocean Division Player of the Year award.

Then there’s Carlmont, last year’s runner-up in the Lake Division. The Scots don’t have nearly the same star power they possessed last year in Lake Division Offensive Player of the Year Damarii Blanks. But because of the way they lost the showdown for the Bay Division title, the target on the Grizzlies’ back is no more in focus than to any team than Carlmont.

Blanks was a beast in the rushing department against Jefferson, going for 205 ground yards, and adding a 96-yard kickoff return for a score to give the Scots a 28-13 lead late in the first half. Jefferson, though, rattled off four unanswered touchdowns from there. It was Carlmont’s first loss of the season after seven straight wins.

Further exacerbating Carlmont’s angst was a second straight loss the following week to non-league rival Sequoia. Once again, the Lake Division has never sent two teams to the CCS playoffs in the same year. Had the Scots pulled off an upset against their rival from the Ocean Division, though, Carlmont head coach Jake Messina said his team would have been a shoo-in for an at-large bid.

“We absolutely would have gotten in,” Messina said.

And the Scots were within reach of an upset of Cinderella proportions, considering the would-be hero had suffered a wrist fracture earlier in the game. The injury occurred to Henry Reich when he was playing quarterback, and he departed as an offensive player. But the now-graduated senior entered in overtime to attempt a game-winning field goal.

His attempt failed as it struck the upright. Sequoia went on to win it 13-7.

Alvarez and company may still be an unstoppable force. A 63.2-percent completion rate last year shows he can deliver in the spread offense.

King, though, undeniably would have had the best arm in the Lake Division this year. In fact, it’s the reason he isn’t playing football now. Instead, he’s focusing on baseball after committing to pitch at the NCAA Division I level for Washington State. Had he opted to play football, he wouldn’t be available for Woodside’s Friday opener, as he is currently playing in the Major League Baseball-sponsored States Play tournament in Arlington, Texas.

“Joseph is a phenomenal baseball player,” Andrews said, “and once he committed to play Division I baseball, he understandably decided to let go of football. … He’s obviously a really great competitor and his arm strength was unlike anyone I’d ever coached. He played with this fire … and it was fun to find ways to use it on the field.”

This might not have been enough to deride Jefferson its burgeoning juggernaut status. Though the San Mateo County football world will never know for sure.