Tag: Chandler High School

Saguaro (Ariz.) High School ends Chandler’s 5-year championship run

Saguaro High School established itself as the best team in Arizona with an Open Division championship win over Chandler.

It was time for a new challenge for Saguaro High School (Scottsdale, Ariz.). From 2006-2018, the school had won 11 4A championships, including six consecutive from 2013-18.

At the upper three levels of Arizona high school football competition, one to two teams dominated each conference. The question was no longer if Saguaro was the best 4A school; the question had turned into whether the Sabercats were better than 5A schools like Centennial (Peoria, Ariz.) and Notre Dame Prep (Scottsdale, Ariz.), and if any of them could match 6A leader Chandler (Ariz.).

That opportunity to provide an answer was given in the creation of the Open Division. Saguaro and Chandler faced off in the first championship game in 2019, and the Chandler Wolves took down the Sabercats 42-35.

The Wolves won in 2020 as well, extending their championship run to five straight years between 6A and the Open Division.

On Saturday, Saguaro finally got to the top. The Sabercats (now 5A), who took down No. 22 Hamilton (6A) in the semifinals, beat No. 21 Chandler 20-15 to win the program’s first Open Division championship.

“We just took down the blue bloods of Arizona in back-to-back weeks,” head coach Jason Mohns said to the Arizona Republic, “and I’m pretty damn proud.”

Junior quarterback Devon Dampier threw two key touchdowns for Saguaro, hitting three-star athlete Javen Jacobs for a 24-yard touchdown with 17 seconds remaining the first half and then sophomore running back Jaedon Matthews for a 45-yard touchdown to take the lead with 4:25 remaining in the game. Senior Junius Marsh intercepted three-star Chandler quarterback Blaine Hipa to help the Sabercats clinched the game.

Dampier, who is rated three stars by 247Sports, finished the game 12-for-17 for 156 yards through the air and rushed for 129 yards on 22 carries.

Through his play and excellent defense that limited the powerhouse to just 15 points, Saguaro took down the reigning champs.

There’s a new best team in Arizona.

No. 16 Hamilton ends No. 10 Chandler’s 45-game winning streak

Hamilton High School ended Chandler’s 45-game win streak and asserted itself as the owners of Arizona Avenue.

Two of the 25 best high school football teams in the country are located four miles away from each other in a Phoenix suburb. Hamilton High School (Chandler, Ariz.) dominated the rivalry over the first decade of its existence, winning 17 straight matchups between 1998 and 2012, but since, Chandler High School has owned the Battle For Arizona Avenue, winning every matchup since a 2013 playoff meeting.

Until this year. On Friday night, Hamilton regained the crown, taking home a 21-14 victory on the back of a defense that did not allow a single point after the first quarter.

With the win, the No. 16 Huskies ended Chandler’s 45-game winning streak and sent the No. 10 team packing.

It officially marks the end of a piece of history Hamilton does not want to remember, one far deeper than simple losses on the football field, but hazing scandal that resulted in arrests of players and reassignments of the principal, athletic director and head coach.

The emergence of Chandler as a football powerhouse removed Hamilton from its annual throne assumptions and the 2017 hazing lawsuit sank it further, dropping them to a 3-7 record in 2018 before the program quickly regrouped. The Huskies have been good, going 9-3 and 8-2 in the two seasons since, but has still trailed Chandler as the premier 6A team since.

The job will not be finished until the Open Division championships when the two teams will likely meet again, but there is no disputing it now: Hamilton is back.

Chandler had 56-yard and 50-yard touchdown passes in the first quarter, but the Huskies defense prevented the Wolves from doing any more. Chandler was sacked 10 times and did not record a first down until midway through the third quarter.

Hamilton’s defensive line was monstrous and saved the game for the Huskies. After Chandler forced a red zone fumble, Hamilton’s Chandler Davis got a strip-sack that led to a Hamilton touchdown.

The line came up huge on Chandler’s final drive as well. A long connection from three-star quarterback Blaine Hipa to Ohio State commit Kyion Grayes set the Wolves up at the 31-yard line and plenty of time to break hearts one more time. But the line got a sack to force third-and-16. They got a sack to force fourth-and-way-too-long. They forced a turnover on downs and let the offense run out the clock.

West Virginia quarterback commit Nicco Marchiol played very conservatively, completing 12 of 19 passes for 79 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 24 more yards on 11 carries. Logan Krei, a two-sport athlete and highly ranked baseball player, rushed for 98 yards on 12 carries, including a 15-yard touchdown.

Hamilton’s national announcement of return was in their bonkers comeback win over Bishop Gorman near the beginning of the season, but locally, they were still No. 2. This win turns the page to a new chapter of Huskies football.

It’s not over until the champion has been anointed, but now, for the first time in eight years, Hamilton runs Arizona Avenue.