I have to admit, I've been fired up about this Wilbur Cross-Hillhouse game since Friday evening, even more so after Maloney lost and Cross moved up to No. 2 in today's New Haven Register Top 10 poll.

The first 1-2 matchup I ever attended came 20 years ago when my alma mater, Stratford High, the No. 2 football team in the state at the time, hosted No. 1 Middletown. Although Middletown had gained a pair of losses that week due to using an ineligible played during a blowout loss, Middletown was still the state's top team. You could almost feel the importance and the magnitude of the game that day and the game lived up to the hype. No. 2 beat No. 1 and Stratford went on to finish No. 1 in the final Register poll.

There's always a little more interest and hype when No. 1 actually plays No. 2. Even the Bowl Championship Series got it right - once. No. 2 Texas dethroned No. 1 Southern Cal at the Rose Bowl two years ago and the TV ratings went through the roof - unlike the ratings from this past BCS title game between Ohio State and LSU, the alleged top two teams in the nation.

Granted, polls are subjective and don't mean a whole heck of a lot in the grand scheme of things. And outside of New Haven, maybe a lot of people won't care, and won't attend tonight's game at the New Haven Athletic Center at 6 p.m. But both teams are 9-0 and Cross is the only team to beat Hillhouse, the two-time defending champion, since 2005.

So it just might be worth it to give up the game you were going to this evening and make the trip to New Haven to watch our Clash of the Titans, as the headline reads this morning. For $5, it might be worth your while.

Just get there early.