A football rivalry between schools 3.5 miles apart will be renewed tonight when New Haven visits Southern Connecticut State.

It will be the first meeting between the two in-state and in-city rivals since 2000. New Haven, which dropped football in 2003, has re-emerged in its first season as a member of the Northeast-10 Conference.

To celebrate the rivalry’s renewal, captains and coaches from both teams dined together this past Monday – not so much to scout each other as to build community.

The two programs have met a total of 19 times, with New Haven holding a 13-5-1 all-time record against the Owls. The teams first met in 1981, one year before New Haven reclassified from Division III to Division II.

The 1981 meeting ended in a 28-28 tie. The schools played annually until 1998, then once more in 2000. The Chargers have won 13 of the last 15 meetings, including strings of six straight from 1985-90 and from 1992-97.