Crosstown rivals Chandler and Hamilton will fight for Arizona's biggest state title at University of Phoenix Stadium.
Photos by Barry Shaffer /Jim Willittes - Graphic by Ryan Escobar
As per tradition, Thanksgiving weekend offers a bountiful harvest of key prep football matchups across the nation. It's hard to focus our attention on only 10 matchups this time of year, but such is the sworn duty of the MaxPreps Top 10 High School Football Games of the Week.
We start this week's preview in Arizona, where No. 23 Chandler is knocking on the door of its first state championship in the playoff era. But the Wolves will need to conquer their crosstown rival Hamilton, a team that has won it all seven times in the last 12 years.
Another key game involving a ranked team is defending national champion Booker T. Washington taking its quest for a 39th-consecutive win up the coast to face Cocoa, a program eliminated from the playoffs by the Tornadoes each of the last three years.
The most noteworthy game taking place on Thanksgiving Day happens in Connecticut, where unbeaten rivals New Canaan and Darien will battle for bragging rights and an outright conference championship.
Things are starting to get a little more bunched up at the top of our season-long predictions contest. Jamie DeMoney (94-46) is barely grasping on to first place in the standings. After going 9-1 last week, Leland Gordon now shares second place with Stephen Spiewak with 93-47 records. Kevin Askeland holds fourth place, only four games out of first. Mitch Stephens (89-51) is currently in fifth place and Colin Ward-Henninger (84-56) remains in sixth.
Here's a look at this week's Top 10 games along with predictions by MaxPreps staff writers and contributors Mitch Stephens, Stephen Spiewak, Kevin Askeland, Leland Gordon, Colin Ward-Henninger and Jamie DeMoney.
To catch up with what's happening in the playoffs nationwide,
view the state champions and brackets nationwide story.
MaxPreps Top 10 Football Games of the Week
Chandler (Ariz.) vs. Hamilton (Chandler, Ariz.)What to watch: Crosstown rivals meet up Friday night for a Division I state championship game that is a rematch of an Oct. 2 contest won convincingly (52-24) by Chandler. That was the second win of a current nine-game streak for the No. 23 Wolves (12-1). Their most recent victory was a 43-22 triumph over Mountain Pointe (Phoenix) in last week's semifinals. It resulted in Chandler's first trip to a state title game and avenged its only loss of the year. Senior quarterback
Bryce Perkins (an Arizona State recruit) threw three touchdown passes to increase his season total to 45, which ranks second in Arizona. Meanwhile, Hamilton (12-1) punched its ticket to the state finals for the seventh straight year and 12th time since 2001 with a 24-7 win over Brophy (Phoenix). The Huskies forced four turnovers, including a 72-yard fumble recovery returned for a touchdown by senior defensive back
Morris Kroma.
Follow live scoring of this game on Qwixcore Just the facts: Hamilton has lost to rival Chandler only two times in 15 meetings between the schools during the last 11 seasons. However, both of Chandler's wins have occurred in the past two years. … Hamilton became Arizona's preeminent large-school football power in a remarkably short period of time. The Huskies already have seven state titles in their 17-year history.
Mitch Stephens: Chandler 24, Hamilton 21
Kevin Askeland: Hamilton 35, Chandler 24
Jamie DeMoney: Chandler 26, Hamilton 20
Stephen Spiewak: Chandler 35, Hamilton 14
Leland Gordon: Chandler 42, Hamilton 39
Colin Ward-Henninger: Chandler 30, Hamilton 27
