PHOENIX —  It’s that time of year again! Region play opens in the desert as the Camelback Spartans travel to face the South Mountain Jaguars Friday night.

“Let’s go make the playoffs,” Camelback coach Joseph Brissette said on his team’s mindset opening conference play. Neither South Mountain or Camelback made the 5A state playoffs last year.

For the Jaguars, they look to impress on homecoming night.

“Homecoming is another game to prove to the state that we’re a team that plays great football,” South Mountain coach Mark Carter said. “We do our best not to let outside distractions make us lose focus on what we’re trying to accomplish. We just have to play the game and take care of business.”

South Mountain (4-1) looks to bounce back from this matchup last year, a game in which Camelback won 16-6.

Camelback (2-4) enters conference play coming off a tough loss to Central (3-2), a game in which they surrendered 22 straight points to finish the game after jumping out to a 13-0 first quarter lead.

“We just have got to get better at what we do,” Brissette said on his team’s loss last week.

It has been a mostly up and down season for Camelback so far, with the big win on homecoming night versus Alhambra where Senior running back Abukar Abdi ran wild for 315 yards and four touchdowns, and the tough losses to Central, Trevor Browne, North and Fairfax.

“Camelback is a well-coached team,” Carter said. “We are going to have our hands full with [Abukar Abdi] and [Shawn Charles] who are explosive and polished athletes. They also have [Ruben Soqui] who leads our region in tackles. They are better than their record indicates.”

South Mountain comes into the week a bit fresher than their opponent, having come off their bye week. The last game for Jaguars came against Central as well, a 33-19 loss.

“It gave us the opportunity for us to get healthy, re-focus, and get that hunger we’ve had back,” Carter said on his teams’ bye week. “Not playing a game does some really interesting things to athletes. It puts things into perspective.”

South Mountain got off to a 4-0 start to the season, defeating Maryvale, Trevor Browne, North and Alhambra by a combined score of 126-44 before that loss to Central.

A lot of the success for South Mountain this season has come from Senior quarterback Jeremiah Williams, Senior running back Marlin Noralez, the defense and of course, second year co-head coaches Mark and Marcus Carter.

“They are a good team this year,” Camelback Junior quarterback Eric Marquez said. “But I think that if we all believe in ourselves, we can beat them.”

South Mountain is tied with Glendale (4-1) for the best record in the 5A Union conference.

“We’re confident, as we should be. But not cocky. That loss let us know they we in fact aren’t invisible and that we have to play our best every time we practice and/or play,” Carter said.