Desert Mountain football in quarantine, cancels Friday game

On short notice, a Pinal County football rivalry was born Thursday with Casa Grande picking up a Saturday night game at Eloy Santa Cruz.

The schools are three conferences and 17 miles apart with Santa Cruz the No.1-ranked team in 2A, and Casa Grande a 5A football team. But that doesn’t matter in a COVID world.

There is mutual respect, and both teams needed a game after Wellton Antelope had to cancel on Santa Cruz and Scottsdale Desert Mountain canceled on Casa Grande.

Casa Grande coach Jake Barro said that Desert Mountain notified its school Thursday afternoon that it has to quarantine because a Phoenix Barry Goldwater football player tested positive for COVID-19. Goldwater played Desert Mountain last Friday.

Messages from The Republic were sent to Desert Mountain coach Conrad Hamilton and Athletic Director Stephen Cervantes.

Goldwater canceled its game for this Friday against Paradise Valley, which was able to make up that game with Phoenix Washington. Goldwater also has to cancel its Oct. 30 game against Cave Creek Cactus Shadows, Deer Valley Unified School District AD Scott Warner said.

“None of their kids (at Desert Mountain) have symptoms, but they have to do the whole quarantine thing,” Barro said.

Barro said it doesn’t matter the conference gap between his team and Santa Cruz, which features one of the state’s top running backs in Hunter Ogle.

So far, there have been 20 schools losing games because of the pandemic.