What’s quickly become Class 1A’s marquee matchup returns to the field Friday.

Six-time defending state champion and top-ranked Royal welcomes No. 3 Cashmere to David Nielsen Memorial Field in a SCAC regular-season matchup at 7 p.m.

With the season still in its infancy, this one will likely decide the conference title and go a long way to deciding how the 1A state bracket shakes out.

Just don’t call it rivalry. At least not to Cashmere coach Bryan Bremer, who began his ninth season leading the Bulldogs with a 64-6 SCAC victory last Friday against College Place.

“I don’t see it as a rivalry,” Bremer said in a telephone conversation Tuesday night. “I see a rivalry as a two-sided affair. I don’t think it’s a rivalry until we beat them.

“We’ve had them on the ropes, but we haven’t beat them.”

No one has nearly come as close in the past three-plus seasons as Cashmere did last year – twice.

First, the Bulldogs pushed the Knights to overtime in the regular-season, before Royal lefty QB Grant Wardenaar connected with running back Dax Jenks for the game-winner.

Then, in the waning moments of the championship at Husky Stadium, Cashmere attempted a two-point conversion to take the lead but the reverse pass fell to the turf.

Now, with the random scheduling, the main event will happen in Week 2 when it won’t be dark until the second half and temps will remain in the 60s or warmer.

“The league wants to do a blind draw and this is definitely a blind draw,” Royal coach Wiley Allred said. “I think both teams would prefer to have it later in the season.”

Bremer, though, Is OK with the big test coming early, eager to see where his team is at with new players at quarterback – Mac Carlson after first-team all-SCAC selection Rylan Hatmaker graduated – and receiver.

“I love that we’re playing meaningful football games early,” Bremer said. “I love that we can challenge our kids. We don’t have time to mess around – you get their focus right away.”

Allred has welcomed the challenge in conference play. Before the SCAC reconfigured into one nine-team conference, the Royal used to run roughshod on the conference’s East wing.

“They’re two good football teams,” he said. “We haven’t always had that in the league. Both teams have to figure things out, and control emotions.”

Each team returns nine starters, with four Knights back on both sides of the ball and three for the Bulldogs.

Wardenaar, the SCAC Player of the Year during the basketball season, and Jenks, who erupted in the postseason after being slowed early by a lingering injury from the preceding track season, return to pace the Knights offense.

Reigning SCAC Defensive Player of the Year Grey Jacobson along with all-state linebacker Jacoby Tait are back for a Cashmere defense that had six shutouts, and never gave up more than 21 points a game last season.

There was some star power lost with the graduation of Royal’s Shea Stevenson, the 1A Player of the Year, and Cashmere’s Prin Fox, the 1A Defensive Player of the Year now at UNLV.

Royal will be playing for its second 50-game winning streak in program history. The Knights won 53 in a row before Colville stopped the streak in the semifinals.

Bellevue owns the state record with 67 consecutive victories that spanned 2010 to 2014.

Bremer, whose Bulldogs have come closer than anybody in the last four seasons, has an idea of what it takes to upend Royal.

“You don’t have to be perfect,” he said. “If you’re so worried about being perfect then one mistake will derail you. You don’t have to play perfect but you do have to play B-plus football.”