26–16
It happened — Chandler beat Hamilton to end the streak at 17 games.
Shaun Aguano saw a sign that things could be different.
Even if just for a half, he saw that his team could compete with just about anyone in the country. He saw his team up 28–17 at the half against St. John Bosco in California, then the №1 team in the country, and even though they wound up losing he knew his program had changed.
“From [St. John Bosco] game, I think the mentality changed on our kids to where we didn’t think we could get beat in Arizona anymore,” Aguano said.
Chandler would go on to lose again the next week against Mountain Pointe, but the point remained the same. There remained one foe that Aguano and the Wolves had not yet conquered — Hamilton.
Just as was the case the previous 17 times the two had met, the atmosphere was set. The stands at Austin Field at Chandler High were packed hours before the game was set to kick, but a different air filed the stands.
This was a different, more confident Wolves program that focused more on defense than simply trying to outscore every opponent. In a way, they were built just like the Hamilton program they were so focused on finally beating, building around the offensive and defensive line and a lockdown defense.
He also hoped for a new mentality, taking away the psychological wounds of the yearly beat downs that long dominated the rivalry.
“Our faculty wanted us to beat Hamilton, but our kids were hearing it all the time,” Aguano said. “‘When can you beat them? You’re not as good as them. When is the program going to be there?’ Did I feel that we had the same kind of caliber of kids [as Hamilton]? In the later years, I did. But our kids were playing not to lose and were looking for bad things to happen at the end. That’s what I had to change.”
Added receiver Dionte Sykes: “There was always pressure. There was pressure from teachers, students, coaches, people from the community, family, friends, because nobody had ever heard of Chandler beating Hamilton. Of course, when you’re there, everybody you know and everybody around you will be like, ‘Oh, man, when are you guys going to beat Hamilton? Is it ever going to come? Are you guys going to beat them this year?’”
Defense ran the show that early October evening, with Chandler managing nothing on offense after an early Chase Lucas touchdown run down the left sideline. A touchdown and a field goal gave Hamilton a 9–6 lead, which it would hold onto until the closing moments of the fourth quarter.
Hamilton took over the ball with a much-needed first down, forcing Chandler to use the last of its three timeouts and ridding it of the opportunity to stop the clock for the rest of the game. Despite all seeming over, the Wolves finally got the break they had longed for since the first matchup between the two schools in 1999.
Hamilton running back Tyrell Smith carried right and fumbled deep in his own territory, creaking the door of opportunity open for the Wolves. Chandler quarter Bryce Perkins scored on a keeper with the subsequent possession, giving the Wolves their second lead of the game, 13–9, with just over two minutes to go.
It didn’t take long for the typical Chandler doubt to creep in. Hamilton quarterback Sam Sasso quickly worked Hamilton down to around Chandler’s 30-yard line before throwing a jump ball to his deep threat, Elijah Williams, that was tipped and bobbled by Chandler defensive back Wesley Sutton before making its way back to Williams for the go-ahead score.
“We all thought that it was over at that point,” Smith said. “I wasn’t worried that they would march back down and score because we were the №1 defense. I was definitely thinking we were good, there’s no way this guys can drive down on us.”
It would be up to Perkins, a first-year starter, to lead the Wolves back with no timeouts and a three-point deficit.
“If I’m going to be 100 percent honest, with the time that we had that I saw, I doubted it,” starting offensive lineman Keola Daniels said. “The thing is, maybe a could seconds later, Bryce [Perkins] went up to me and said, ‘We’re going to do it,’ and once Bryce put his faith in all of the rest of us, I felt my emotions get a little bit more evened out and I felt more confident. He was willing to with us through battle on that last drive. Once I heard how confident Bryce was, that’s when I knew we were probably going to do it.”
Perkins peppered the sideline, routinely hitting Dionte Sykes and Mitch McCulley on quick outs and comeback routes to cross into Hamilton territory. After a 20-yard carry from Lucas on fourth down got Chandler near the red zone with about 20 seconds to go.
What came next was one of the most iconic moments in the then-99-year history.
Perkins put McCulley in motion, took the snap, took one step right and fires a corner route to Dionte Sykes, who slid to make the catch just inside the end zone.
Bedlam.
As Sykes’ arms went up to match the official’s, his mind went blank.
“I felt like the whole play happened in slow motion,” Sykes said. “As soon as I got the play call, in my head I was just thinking that it was coming to me. It was do or die. You’ve got to make the play. This is what you live for. This is what you’re supposed to do. It all happened in slow motion and I remember the ball coming. I honestly caught it in between my legs and then brought it back up. I was just like, ‘Did I really catch this?’ It was so surreal, that all I could do — I couldn’t celebrate — I got up and all I could do was just put my hands up and just pray for the referee to put his hands up with me. Luckily enough, he saw me with possession and it was a touchdown. It all happened in slow motion.”
Added Daniels, who was in on the play: “It was, probably to this day, the biggest thing in my high school career when I look back at it. It was just surreal when it first happened. I remember that [touchdown to Dionte Sykes] almost perfectly. I don’t remember the exact call, but I remember that it was a deep pass for Dionte. I’m pass-blocking, and I hear the ball whiz through the back of my head, like I could feel it already gone, and I stopped blocking to just look at the ball wondering if he’s going to catch it. Once I saw the ref’s hands go up, it was probably the craziest feeling I’ve ever had.”
Even then, doubt creeped in.
“I remember looking into the crowd [after the Sykes touchdown] and it was pandemonium,” Chandler principal Larry Rother said. “It was just crazy. But it was also sort of reserved. We had to kick the ball off again to Hamilton, and they had 20–30 seconds left so it was almost this air of, ‘Well, there’s still time left.’ In any other game, we would be thinking to ourselves, ‘Well, we’ve got this,’ I could sense that fans and even the sideline a little bit had seen this before and it didn’t go our way… there was a lot of people in the stands and maybe on the sidelines that thought, ‘Oh man, if we lose this one, this is going to be a heartbreaker.’”
Hamilton got the ball back with just 13 seconds remaining. On the first play of the possession, Sasso threw a pass that was easily intercepted and returned for a touchdown by senior linebacker JR Hunt.
More bedlam.
“As soon as J.R. caught it — I was playing deep safety — I saw he had an open lane to score, and I just looked at the whole Hamilton sideline and the whole Hamilton student section and stands,” Sykes said. “They all just had the same look on their face and they just started pouring out of the stands. They were cleared. I remember specifically running on Hamilton’s sideline, screaming, ‘We got the [win]! We got the dub!” There we just random people from the community flipping me off on the sidelines.”
On the other sideline, elation was replaced with devastation.
“It sucked, being honest,” linebacker Santana Sterling said. “Every year at the Chandler-Hamilton game, all the alumni and past players come back. Everyone in the state was really watching that game, and for it to be on us, especially on our defense, being the team captain and being the linebacker on defense it was just horrible. I remember that I just went over to the track and just sat down and started crying. A couple of players I had played with when I was a sophomore came up to me and kept telling me that everything was going to be OK.
“Joey Vincent was like, ‘You have nothing to hang your head about. These other dudes need to figure out what’s going on here. We need to figure out the tradition and everything.’ It was just a disappointment. We let everybody down. It was just weird at school. On Monday, it was quiet. The coaches weren’t even talking. It was definitely one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had in a football experience in my life.”
Added Tyrell Smith: “I felt like that game was a fluke, so — it was tough taking that loss, but I just felt like in the end we just had to focus on the rest of this season and make sure we win the rest of our games no matter who we play. It did affect us when it first happened, because when it first happened it felt like nobody wanted to play football anymore.”
Added Sasso: “It definitely left a sore spot in my mouth, especially with them sealing the game with that interception I threw. It definitely left a sore spot in my mouth. In the back of my head, I figured — and I wanted — the chance at them again in the playoffs. If definitely left something in the back of my head for the rest of the season to try and get back at that and do better, prepare better and play better. That definitely had a play in how I played for the rest of that season.”
For one night, as the players remained out on Austin Field for one final performance of the Haka before the lights went out, Chandler was on top. A whole rivalry had become legitimized.
“I think that what Hamilton said about the whole rivalry — and it was a brilliant play on their part — was that it’s not a rivalry,” CTownRivals.com founder Ralph Amsden said. “Somebody has to win for it to be a rivalry. That would just twist the knife for Chandler. Of course people from Hamilton wanted to keep the streak alive and they absolutely believed it was a rivalry, but they were the big little brother. For them to say that they weren’t even on their level and not ‘our rival,’ that was just the absolute best for them. They loved having the ability to do that. Now it’s an actual rivalry, and you can see Hamilton kids and parents and people from the community who show up to the games and they’re hoping to win, not expecting to win. I think that adds an element to it that was never really there before. Some people say that it’s more fun now, and others would say that it’s less fun because there’s no streak going on and some people like dynasties and they like dominance. I think on the whole it’s changed things for the better because you go into it expecting it to be a contest.”
Added Sykes: “It just felt like such a weight lifted off our shoulders because nobody felt that pressure from not only our coaches and the school, but our community and the people that we’re around all the time. That’s the biggest game of the year. Hamilton-Chandler is the biggest game of the year. To finally have broke through was a great feeling. It was the most amazing feeling in the world, especially catching the game-winner.”
Added Arizona Republic high schools writer Richard Obert: “Now it’s become a rivalry. Before, with the way Hamilton was just dominating and even Chandler was finally starting to make a run under Jim Ewan and with Brett Hundley at quarterback for his last two years. They started to show that they really could hang with Hamilton or at least be in the same vicinity before bowing out. I remember losses some years that were just tough games and tough luck where they had a lead, then they blew the lead and Hamilton always seemed to find a way to win. The game-changer in the past few years was Bryce Perkins and his emergence at quarterback two years ago. His swagger became very infectious at Chandler and they had those great stud athletes, speed and then all of a sudden they started to find really good linemen and they had really good defenses. The biggest things I think for Chandler to get back on the same field as Hamilton has been their defense and their offensive line. Those two things in the last two or three years has put them in the same league and has now allowed them to beat Hamilton.”
The two would play again in memorable fashion that same season, but for that night, it was a moment years in the making.
High school fields typically take the score off the scoreboard moments after the game. One thing remained on Chandler’s scoreboard for the next week until it came time to take the field again.
26–16.
