Perhaps St. John’s Prep coach Jim O’Leary put it best when he said, “This is a game that should be played. Every year.”Five years ago, when The Prep and Peabody agreed to play an early-season football game, it set mouths watering all over the North Shore. Here were two of the elite teams, knocking heads for regional supremacy.Only it hasn’t turned out that way. The Peabody program has been beset with turmoil for the past three seasons. And St. John’s – which willingly takes on all comers with what could be the toughest nonleague schedule around – is trying to bounce back from (for the Eagles) a so-so 2007 season in which the team went 6-5, but 3-1 in the tough Catholic Conference.The two teams will meet for the fourth time Saturday (1:30) at The Prep’s Cronin Field, and for new coach Scott Wlasuk, the Peabody agenda is pretty clear.”At this point,” he said, “I’m not asking them to win. I’m asking that they give 100 percent on every play, at every practice and game. They do that, we’ll be all right.”O’Leary understands Peabody’s predicament from the last three seasons, but won’t get caught up in any of it.”It’s their opening day,” he said (St. John’s defeated Masconomet last week in its opener). “You can’t take anything for granted. You read about upsets all the time. We don’t want to be one of those upsets.”For St. John’s, Saturday’s game is one of three straight at home (next week it’s Central Catholic). After that, “there’s a downside in our schedule,” O’Leary says.That’s an understatement. The Eagles then play six of their final eight games away from Cronin Field, including three straight against Everett, Brockton and Dracut – in that order.”I don’t know who the AD was who scheduled those games,” joked O’Leary, who is the AD as well as the coach.Wlasuk is just happy to get the opportunity to turn a program around that has been the envy of every public school for the last 25 years, but went 1-10 in 2007.”It’s always been a dream of mine to come back and coach at Peabody High, ever since I played here,” he said. “I’m actually very humbled to be able to come back here and try to turn things around.”He said he saw The Prep’s game against Masconomet last week, and “I was very impressed with them in all facets of the game.”Ironically, one of the Prep players Wlasuk and Peabody will have to contend with is junior linebacker George Sessoms – the coach’s neighbor.”I drive by their house every day on my way home from work,” Wlasuk said, “and a lot of the time, I’ll see his father and say, ‘Too bad he’s not with us!'”Peabody will also have to contend with Lynn’s Brendon Felder, a junior, who scored three touchdowns last week against the Chieftains.”They seem to be pretty good in the skill positions,” Wlasuk said.O’Leary, on the other hand, is a little nervous about the single-wing offense Wlasuk has installed.”You don’t see it but once a year – if that,” O’Leary said, “and we’ve only had four days to prepare, because we had a game last week.”That kind of puts them at an advantage,” he said. “They’ve seen us ? but we haven’t seen them. And it’s very difficult to put a look squad together to run what they’re running.”But, says O’Leary, none of it matters in the long run.”It’s two local teams playing each other, and that’s what you want,” he said. “There’s nothing better than playing local teams. It’s nice to start the season, at home, with this kind of a schedule.”