The unbeaten teams in Division I are down to a half-dozen. Two collide on the same field Friday night as Mountain Pointe returns to facing a playoff-cailber foe in visiting Chandler at Karl Kiefer Stadium.

Mountain Pointe hasn't skipped a beat in its perfect start to 2012. The Pride has been challenged twice by perennial playoff programs in Hamilton and Desert Vista and prevailed both times by a field goal or less. They've taken care of business from start to finish against Mesa High and Buena as expected in between.

Mountain Pointe (4-0)  has played the better competition overall in its four wins, but Chandler (4-0) got untracked in that department last week with a huge second half in beating previously unscathed Basha, 41-31. The trick for Chandler is not to rest on the laurels of one big triumph, but keep its offense well-oiled and get a stingier defensive effort than last week against Basha when the Wolves gave up 560 yards.

Mountain Pointe prefers a ball control attack and has the backs to do it in Garette Craig and Thomas Warren. Craig leads the team in rushing and has three, 100-yard games to his credit. When Craig didn't crack the 100-yard mark, Warren did with 164 yards against  Desert Vista in the Pride's thrilling win over the defending state champs two weeks ago. The Pride has the ability to keep defenses honest with junior quarterback Antonio Hinojosa connecting with two-way standout  Jalen Brown, Craig and Thair Blakes if need be. Mountain Pointe's defense is the best  Chandler has faced to date Chandler will be hard-pressed to keep their 50-point average going and perhaps even half of that.  The Wolves, however,  put up 35 points last season in a win (35-24) over the Pride.

Chandler has new weapons for the most part at running back and receiver from a year ago -- all good enough to cause Mountain Pointe some anxiety. Running back  Branden Jenkins ran over and through Basha defenders last week to the tune of 182 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Darell Garretson didn't overwhelm Mountain Pointe in last year's Chandler victory with just more than 100 yards passing. Garretson went ballasitc last week throwing for 398 yards with receivers like Patrick Baldenegro and Dionte Sykes heading the corps along with Jenkins out of the backfield.

Other games of note involving East Valley and southern Arizona teams on Friday:

IRONWOOD RIDGE (4-0) AT MARCOS DE NIZA (4-0): This is the first of back-to-back tests for Ironwood Ridge, which has barely worked up sweat in its four wins. Ironwood Ridge, which knocked off Marcos last season, 34-20 in Tucson, doesn't have the manchild running back Mitch Fischer any longer, but his replacement Anthony Braunreiter has proven more than adequate and quarterback Tyler Williams, a 1,000-yard rusher is back piloting the offense. Marcos de Niza, which has played a couple quality D-II squads so far in Chaparral and , is stocked with great athletes led by safety Priest  Willis, runnning back Mauriece Lee and receiver Paul Elvria. Marcos can turn the result around this season, but can't afford to dig itself a 27-0 hole as it did a year ago.

HIGHLAND (3-1) AT BASHA (3-1): If this is a shootout,  it's advantage Basha. Basha rolled up 560 yards and 31 points last week and lost. Basha has many playmakers, namely running back Rajhan Meriwether and explosive wide out Nate Phillips, every defensive coordinator's nightmare. But Basha has to stop the turnover bug, which is hampering its yard-churning offense from putting more points on the board. Highland would like a more defensive-minded contest. That said the one team the Hawks faced with a potent offense put up 40 points (Desert Ridge) on them. Basha must improve on the defensive side after giving up better than 600 yards of offense last week to Chandler. Not many teams, however, have the weapons Chandler does.

SCOTTSDALE CHRISTIAN (3-1) VS. TEMPE PREP (3-1) at Arizona Lutheran HS (Saturday Sept. 22):  This figures to be another tightly contested game between schools immersed in the D-V title chase. SCA , which sustained a late loss to Northwest Christian two weeks ago, is led by running backs Zechariah Gatling and Chaz Dudley and quarterback Luke O'Neill. Tempe Prep was stunned by a second-half rally by Arizona Lutheran last week and hopes to rebound from a poor performance.