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ATTLEBORO - For both teams, the season ends on Thursday.

There will be no playoff games for which to prepare, nor any dreams of playing on the same FieldTurf as Brady and Moss, Bruschi and Seymour.

For them, a trophy called "Hilda" is their Lombardi. Not even a mahogany cutout of the commonwealth can compare.

Thursday's game will be everything for the members of the football teams from Attleboro High and North Attleboro High.

And this year, it could be magic. For the 88th time on Thanksgiving Day (and 89th overall), the Bombardiers and Rocketeers will resume their time-honored rivalry, this time on Attleboro's home turf of Tozier-Cassidy Field. Attleboro will enter with an 8-2 record, having finished second in the Old Colony League, while North comes in at 7-2, second in the Hockomock League entering the holiday.

But there has been nothing second-rate about either team's seasons.

Both came close to representing their leagues in the upcoming MIAA playoffs. Attleboro's only league loss was a 35-21 defeat on the road against a finally-healthy Dartmouth team that sits at the top of the metropolitan newspapers' mythical Division 1 rankings. North's lone defeat in the Hockomock was to the league's representative in the Division 2 playoffs, Mansfield, by a 13-7 score at Community Field. Both stumbled against non-league foe and local rival Bishop Feehan, which has also qualified for the D2 tournament.

Otherwise, it's been a season of excellence for both teams - all leading to the final validation that a Thanksgiving victory can bring.

"It's been a great year," North Attleboro coach Kurt Kummer said. "Obviously there's some disappointment like everyone, we wanted to go to the playoffs and represent our league. But we had our chances, the kids worked extremely hard all year, and this is where we are."

"Four our program, this is our chance to take it up to the next level," Attleboro coach Kevin Deschenes said. "We're looking at it as our Super Bowl. It will be a very emotional game our seniors beat North as freshmen and haven't since, and they'd certainly like to be able to do it in their last game."

In terms of varsity competition, there's no denying that North Attleboro has held the upper hand for more than 30 years.

North holds the series lead at 53-26-8 on the holiday, with a 54th win coming in the 1998 MIAA Division 3 Super Bowl. Since 1978, North has a 28-2-1 edge; Attleboro's last victory was a 22-8 decision in 1994.

That's a whole lot of history for Attleboro to overcome - and a burden that Deschenes said late last week that he was going to try to minimize.

"As a group, we'll just have to get through it," he said. "We're trying to push our program forward, and we're not mentioning it to the kids. It's more of just an approach that we're going back to work after all, they're still teenagers. They don't need to have the fate of the world on them." "We talk about the Long Red Line," Kummer said, "but it's more about the pride of the program and pride in the community than it is about the past of this series. That's a really good football team we'll be facing a really good team. And the kids know that they've got some really good players over there."

Attleboro's challenge will be to generate offense out of its outstanding running game against a defense that allowed just 9.4 points per game this fall, third-best among the area's 10 football teams.

The Bombardiers have the weapons, however. Junior running back Matty Campbell led Division 1 with 132 points (21 touchdowns and three conversion rushes), and can open holes between the tackles practically by himself. Senior Tyler McCarthy (seventh in D1 with 70 points) has the outside speed to alter a game and senior fullback Brenden Dozier is an outstanding complementary back.

The Bombardiers have also had success throwing the ball. Senior Mike Barry has thrown seven touchdown passes, with sophomore Ryan Araujo becoming his favorite target.

"We've been able to run a lot, but in this game, I think we're going to need a good mix," Deschenes said. "And as always, the game is going to be won on the line. We've got some pretty skilled kids in the backfield, but if you don't create those holes and creases, they're not going to go anywhere."

North's offense has been a two-headed affair with senior Steve Rollins and junior Joe Kummer alternating at quarterback. Rollins and Kummer have combined for nine TD passes, which would rank them in a five-way tie for seventh place in Division 2 if they were one entity.

That's pretty much how the elder Kummer looks at the tandem. Rollins brings senior leadership and poise to the position, but when the Rocketeers are in need of a little spark, Kummer brings a strong arm and Matt Cassel-like mobility to the backfield.

"Both have a great attitude about it," coach Kummer said. "They're friends, they support each other in practice and they help make each other better. What they are all about is that they want to win."

In the North backfield, Kummer has gotten great mileage out of senior Chris Weeman (11 touchdowns, 12th in D2). Brett Mastropoll, Danny Lang and Kevin Richman have played big roles all season long as North has incorporated "spread" elements into its offense.

The Rocketeers' ace in the hole may be on defense, where assistant coach Don Johnson is one of the best at making halftime adjustments that helped turn deficits against Foxboro and King Philip into victories. Kummer also credited Richman, a 5-9, 167-pound safety and senior captain with stepping up his play in the big games.

"We've gotten a lot out of our senior class," said Kummer. "On offense we were more balanced, we were able to run the spread and throw the ball, and we always played good defense."

That defense will be tested, however, by an Attleboro team that has averaged 30.8 points a game and went over the 50-point plateau twice. Similarly, the Bombardiers need to negate a perceived edge in team speed held by the Rocketeers.

"We've got to be able to neutralize their spread," Deschenes said, "and even then, they don't have a lot of weaknesses. The can always go back to the Wing-T or pro power-I."

Like Kummer, Deschenes said his seniors have been the lifeblood of his team's success.

"I have a lot of great kids," he said, "seniors who showed a lot of leadership like Mazz (guard Nick Mazurkiewicz), (linebacker Phil) Elias, Barry they showed a lot of dedication."

Now, it's time for both teams to bring things down to the most elemental terms.

"It's all going to come down to two basic things," Deschenes said. "Blocking and tackling."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.