Eric Couper to Peter Panagiotopolous connection sets records, drives Notre Dame deeper into the 6A playoffs

The quarterback-receiver chemistry driving Notre Dame’s high-powered offense began in a seventh-grade classroom at St. Juliana on the Northwest Side.

Peter Panagiotopoulos and Eric Couper didn’t play football together then, but they became best friends. When Couper decided to switch from defensive player to quarterback when he started high school at Notre Dame, the two friends made it happen together.

“We just kept hitting random fields that entire summer before freshman year,” Panagiotopoulos said. “We threw the ball around anywhere we could. That’s my best friend.”

Couper started as quarterback on the freshman team, but had to wait his turn before starting on varsity as a senior. Panagiotopoulos caught just one pass his freshman year.

No one expected this duo to earn local headlines and set school records. But they have. Panagiotopoulos is the school’s career leader in receiving yards (1,233) and receptions (85) and set single-season records this year in receptions (70), yards (1,015) and touchdowns (16). Couper set school season records for touchdowns (31) and passing yards (2,226).

“I can always trust [Panagiotopolous] to get open,” Couper said. “He’s not very tall, but he is fast, and he is smooth and will pretty much catch anything.”

Couper threw five touchdown passes, two to Panagiotopolous, in Notre Dame’s 44-0 win over Maine West in a Class 6A opening round playoff game on Saturday in Niles.

“Eric is a major competitor and was right there with the two seniors that played last year,” Dons coach Dan DeFranza said. “So I knew he was going to play well this season, but the numbers have surprised me. I know he was very disappointed last year with that playing time. He is a real, real competitor.”

Couper was 9-for-11 for 207 yards against Maine West. Panagiotopoulos caught three passes for 103 yards. Nathan Nowak, JD Look and Deonte Macon also caught touchdowns.

“Couper never played quarterback growing up, and Panagiotopolous had one catch freshman year,” DeFranza said. “These kids put in the work. They are really good friends, and they work hard together and put in the extra time together, and that shows.”

Allen Cunningham/For the Sun Times.

All the scoring came in the first half, and the second half featured a running clock.

“We wanted to put the pressure on early,” Notre Dame linebacker Konrad Hozian said. “You don’t want to give them any hope at all.”

The opening drive started well for Maine West (3-7), but ended with a punt that went out of the end zone for a safety. Notre Dame scored two plays later on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Couper to Panagiotopoulos.

“When you start the game off with a special-teams play where you give up points, that is a tough thing to come back from,” Maine West coach George Klupchak said. “But we did some nice things in the first drive and moved the ball a little bit and didn’t quite settle into the game the way we hoped to.”

Notre Dame (6-4) is averaging 33 points and even managed to score 28 against Brother Rice’s talented defense.

“[Couper and Panagiotopoulos] are setting records and that performance is a lot due to our offensive line,” DeFranza said. “The kids up front are really hard workers.”

The Dons will travel to Grant next week for the first round of the 6A playoffs.

“Our expectations were to get to the playoffs no matter what,” Couper said. “I know I have surprised some people putting up these numbers, but I am grateful that I am. We want to keep rolling.”