Since the Arizona Ave trophy was introduced in 2013, it has spent all its time in the north side of town at Chandler. The Wolves have won all four regular season matchups with the trophy and defeated the Huskies in the 2014 state championship game to win their first state championship since 1949.

The Wolves have a 5-1 record since 2013 with their lone loss coming in the semi-finals of the 2013 playoffs.

Before the introduction of the trophy, Hamilton won all 14 regular season matchups from 1999-2012 and three more times in the playoffs to compile a 17-0 record against the Wolves

The 19th iteration of the Battle for Arizona Ave kicks off at 7 Friday at Austin Field on the campus of Chandler.

“I see a very established football team with great athletes and great coaching. They are the best of the best in Arizona right now,” Hamilton coach Dick Baniszewski said about the Wolves at the Battle for Arizona Avenue Luncheon on Tuesday.

Both teams come into the game with 7-2 records and are playing not only for pride but for one of the top spots in the playoffs as the Huskies are ranked No. 4 and the Wolves are No. 5.

“If we play with less mistakes than they do and we bring more intensity, I think we will be good,” Chandler coach Shaun Aguano said.

The rivalry is always intense but not bitter. “This game is always played very hard and very intense but the sportsmanship has always been great between these two schools,” Baniszewski said.

Both teams had some early season struggles but came out of them on fire. The Wolves are on a four-game winning streak and the Huskies on a six-game winning streak.

Aguano knew things would turn around for the Wolves when he “looked on the sideline at practice and didn’t have 15 guys out. A lot of the guys who were out were our leaders and so once they came back we started clicking and had a pretty good couple of games,” he said.

The Huskies lost their second game of the season to 5A Queen Creek. “Everyone talks about Queen Creek and that setback,” Baniszewski said. “That was a temporary setback and we’re doing now what we’ve been doing since we started… One game at a time.”

He wants his team to stay focused because it has enough distractions like “bookface,” as he jokingly referenced Bill Belichick.

The Chandler Rotary Club handed out $1,000 scholarships to Hamilton’s Shav Zutshi and Chandler’s Detrick Gammage for leadership and a commitment to service. The club has been giving these out since the start of the luncheon in 2013.