Dana Hills High School and Aliso Niguel High school are known for their rivalry, particularly in football. Over the years, the schools’ football rivalry has grown stronger, fueling a desire to outdo each other every season.
As they compete, Dana Hills and Aliso Niguel football teams have both earned league titles, adding to their reputations for success.
Dana Hills High school beat Aliso Niguel 35-14 In October 2025. The previous year, Dana Hills also defeated Aliso Niguel, with a score of 20-10. The Wolverines won 38-24 in September 2022.
This intense rivalry has deep roots. Back in 1996, a “New York Times article” highlighted the fierce neighborhood competition between the two teams.
In 1995, Aliso Niguel’s running back Trent Perley rushed for 180 yards and two touchdowns to lead his team to a 26–6 victory over Dana Hills.
In 1996, Aliso Niguel beat Dana Hills 52–14, a dominant win. The game got extra attention because early that morning someone had painted “DH” on Aliso’s field, which the Aliso coach identified as a “cowardly act.”
Last year, on October 4, 2024, Aliso Niguel defeated Dana Hills 33–6 at Aliso’s home stadium. That win extended Aliso’s home win streak in the rivalry.
In the 2024 game, Aliso was especially strong at home, showing improvement in the league while illustrating dominance in the Dana vs. Aliso rivalry.
Aliso Niguel and Dana Hills didn’t play each other in football for about six years, roughly between 2018 and 2023.
This event caused controversy for students and parents as people assumed that the problematic and historical rivalry was what had led to the pause in the two teams’ competition. However, this common belief was untrue and the two team’s shifts in leagues was the real reason behind the pause.
Around 2018, CIF-Southern Section (CIF-SS) did a realignment of the South Coast and Sea View leagues. Dana Hills dropped into a lower competitive division, and Aliso Niguel stayed higher leading to the pause. Because of that, their football teams stopped competing annually and the rivalry stopped for the duration of six years.
Coaches often scheduled non-league rivalry games, but in this case, they didn’t for several years, possibly due to competitive balance.
The rivalry did not go away as even during the gap students at both schools still talked about the rivalry. The rivalry returned in 2024, and Aliso Niguel hosted Dana Hills and won with the score of 33–6. That restart revived the “Battle of the Hills”, bringing back one of South County’s more spirited matchups.
Junior Claire Hirakawa (11) said, “I was really excited for the Dana game last year. It had been a couple years since we had last played them and going to it was really fun. I could tell that everyone was excited for the revival.”
When the matchup returned in 2024, both schools expressed their excitement and promoted it heavily on social media and at pep rallies, emphasizing that it was the first meeting in six years. Then, in 2025, they played again and this time Dana Hills won 35–14 on Aliso’s field.
Varsity player Xavier Parris (11) said, “It is definitely most exciting to play Dana every year. We look forward to it every season. They are our rivals.”
This rivalry exists within other sports as well. The Aliso Niguel Baseball team and The Dana Hills team are rivals and have dramatic games due to their competitiveness.
April 2025, Dana Hills won a back-and-forth game 9-8 while two years prior, Aliso Niguel beat Dana Hills in the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs.
