face off vs pitched battle

face off

noun
  • A face-to-face confrontation, especially a bitter one. 

  • The starting point in a match of ice hockey, where two players face each other to snatch the puck. 

verb
  • To confront (each other). 

pitched battle

noun
  • An intense, rancorous argument or confrontation. 

  • A battle which opposing forces anticipate and commit to fighting; a sustained, intense and confrontational fight. 

How often have the words face off and pitched battle occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )