MARBLEHEAD – In this corner ? we have the history and pageantry of the Marblehead-Swampscott football rivalry, which celebrates its 100th anniversary on Thanksgiving.And in this corner, we have the game itself, stripped of all its history and pageantry ? as significant to the kids playing it Thursday as it is to its overall place in the history of the two towns.It’s been a long, long time since both teams went into Thanksgiving looking for a league championship and a trip to the postseason. It hasn’t happened in the modern postseason era, which began in 1972 with the institution of the high school Super Bowls.It has happened that one team, or another, has gone into Thanksgiving with a chance to win the Northeastern Conference ? and has been summarily thwarted by the other. It happened twice in the span of three years in the 1980s ? Marblehead upending Swampscott in 1984 and Swampscott returning the favor with a 14-0 shutout in 1986.But Thursday, both teams will be playing for the same thing. Should Marblehead beat Swampscott, the Magicians will win the Northeastern Conference South championship and play Arlington Catholic in the Division 3 Eastern Mass. semifinal game next Tuesday. A Swampscott win gives the Big Blue the nod, as both league champ and playoff participant.Both teams have had their share of hardships. Marblehead’s are well documented, with the suspension of two principal players for violating school rules. But Swampscott comes into the game with its own difficulties. The team will play without standout receiver Trevor Wheeler (torn ACL) and linebacker/running back Ilya Levin (undisclosed reasons).And while the teams have arrived at the same place with the same league records (3-1), they’ve taken very different routes.”We graduated 12 seniors from last year’s (Super Bowl-winning) team,” said Swampscott coach Steve Dembowski, speaking to the throng that showed up at the Marblehead-Swampscott Gridiron Clubs Old-Timers dinner. “We lost our first game in the last minute, and then won seven in a row.”Included was a dramatic come-from-behind win over Gloucester. But Wheeler, arguably one of the top receivers in the entire Northeastern Conference, went down during the Winthrop game (a win), and Swampscott felt his loss almost immediately – losing to Beverly the following week.”We didn’t play well in that game,” Dembowski said.A week and a half ago, though, “playing with what was essentially a M.A.S.H unit, we were able to squeak out a win over Danvers. Between graduation, injuries, and other guys not being available, we’ve done well,” Dembowski said.Marblehead coach Doug Chernovetz came to town four years ago without much of a tradition to draw from. The program had fallen on hard times, and hadn’t had a winning season since 1992.”Our guys came to camp in August with one goal in mind: to put that 1992 date in the past,” he said. “And we’ve worked hard right from the start to achieve that goal.”The Magicians cleared that hurdle three weeks ago with a win over Winthrop. After that game, Marblehead found itself not only clinching a winning record, but – if the math worked out right – a chance to wrap up the NEC South a week early at Stackpole Field in Saugus.Alas, the math didn’t work out right. Beverly had to defeat Winthrop last Friday, but didn’t ? and that made Thursday’s game for all the marbles.In the meantime, of course, the team was rocked by the suspension of quarterback Hayes Richardson and kicker Ian McKinley for violating school rules. The Magicians had to play a motivated Saugus team last Saturday and lost, 41-13. It wouldn’t have mattered if they’d won.Marblehead will still be without its two key players for at least one more game, but, as Chernovetz said, “We’ve overcome adversity before.”Football makes men out of boys,” he told the crowd at the Gerry 5 last night. “It teaches valuable life lessons.”