Beverly Vs. Salem: A Thanksgiving High School Football Tradition

SALEM, MA — One of the oldest Thanksgiving rivalries in the state will kick off in Salem at about 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning.

While the Beverly-Salem rivalry does not always get mentioned in quite the same historic breath as Wellesley-Needham and Boston Latin-Boston English, the two North Shore cities have sent their gridiron teams to battle for more than 125 years with plenty of bragging rights always at stake.

This year, the Panthers will be looking to finish up their late-season surge that began after they dropped their first six games of the season. Beverly then beat defending Division 5 state champion Swampscott, 28-23, on Oct. 21 before topping Winchester and Malden the past two weeks.

Salem's season has followed nearly the opposite patch as the Witches raced out to a 5-0 start to the fall in non-league and Northeastern Conference Small games before a few bumps late in the year. The Witches (6-4) did notch a victory against Lynn English on Nov. 4 before suffering a 34-18 loss to Danvers last week.

Game day tickets will be sold at the gate for $10.

For those who can't make the game, a link to watch it will be available here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)