Plenty of bad blood between Chandler, Perry
It’s gotten nasty.
When Chandler and Gilbert Perry meet Saturday at 4:30 p.m. for the 6A football championship at Sun Devil Stadium, there won’t be a lot of goodwill spread across the field. There will be bad blood. A behind-the-scenes soap opera played out in the summer that lasted into the second half of this season between Perry and Chandler.
Perry went to the Arizona Interscholastic Association with allegations that cornerback David Eppinger committed a prior-contact rule violation by having direct contact with Jeff Conover while playing for a state 7-
on-7 team organized by Conover.
Jeff Conover is the father of Chandler quarterback Jacob Conover. Jeff has helped with Chandler’s freshman team and the Wolves quarterbacks.
Eppinger, who transferred from Perry, was ruled ineligible before the season to play at Chandler by the AIA Executive Board.
But that wasn’t Eppinger in the photos with Jeff Conover, they told a Superior Court judge, who decided in early October there was no prior-contact violation and Eppinger was granted a restraining order.
He missed the regular-season game against Perry. But he’s playing now. And his motivation is running deep.
That’s one subplot.
Purdy factor
Then, there is the Purdy factor. Last year, quarterback Brock Purdy nearly burned the Wolves in the state final.
This time, Chandler faces Brock’s brother, Chubba, a junior quarterback.
But there is the mental hurdle. Perry has never beaten Chandler and that burns at the core of Pumas coach Preston Jones.
“Chandler plays well when they play Perry,” Jones said. “You watch our film, you never see (Conover) miss a throw. You never see a kid drop a ball. They don’t fumble. They play lights out when they play Perry High School.
“We want to see their best, bring their best. But they bring their A game every time they play us.”
Even though Perry has yet to beat Chandler in football, this has lapped the Chandler-Hamilton football rivalry, mainly because Perry has lapped Hamilton in terms of success.
Perry is no longer the sleeping giant. It has grown, developed, and awakened in the far Southeast Valley. And Chandler knows it.
“The last couple of years, they’ve had good quarterbacks,” Chandler coach Shaun Aguano said. “They’ve done a good job there.”
Aguano knows state champions starts with the quarterback
“Everybody has to have that trigger guy,” Aguano said.
Conover might be the best big-game high school quarterback ever to play in Arizona.
A win against Perry would give Conover three consecutive state championships, a feat no quarterback at the highest classification has ever done in Arizona.
“None of this could ever happen if it wasn’t for the past Chandler Wolves, the legacy it has,” Conover said. “Our ultimate focus is living in the moment. Obviously, three years in a row would be awesome. It would be a great thing to have on your resume as a high school player.
“But ultimately we just want to leave a legacy for the next few years at Chandler.”
How deep does this rivalry run?
It took Chandler more than a decade of playing Hamilton to finally break through and beat the Huskies.
“Our coaches understand because that’s how we felt about Hamilton and we couldn’t get that win,” Aguano said. “Our kids understand that every detail is important. And if we pay attention to the details and take care of ourselves, we’ll be fine.”
Chandler nearly didn’t get back here. It needed a two-point conversion pass from Conover to Brayden Liebrock in overtime of a one-point semifinal win over Gilbert Highland.
“We prepare week in and week out for those situations, and it shows,” Conover said.
What will he do for an encore? “They’re a good team, and we respect them as an opponent,” Conover said. “There has been tensions in the past. But we just play it like any other game.”