On one sideline will be Brian King, in his second year as Hanover’s head coach. Opposite him will be good friend Matt Luccarelli.

The two former teammates at Western New England College had also coached against each other in last year’s holiday classic, which Hanover won, 14-6. Today’s game takes on more significance, however, with Luccarelli the acting head coach for Norwell High this time around.

“This is a fun game and part of a great tradition,’’ said Luccarelli. “It’s even better going against a coach you know.’’

Luccarelli, with five seasons as an assistant to longtime Norwell coach Jim Sullivan, was given the reins temporarily after Sullivan began treatment for throat cancer over the summer. Adding to the emotion is that Sullivan is Luccarelli’s uncle.

“Matt wants Jim back in the worst way,’’ said Norwell’s athletic director, Scott Paine, a Hanover native. “We all want Jim back. Jim’s not ready to give up coaching high school football yet. He’s a legend. If he can come back, everybody will be extremely happy.’’

The neighboring high schools, only 4 miles apart, both enter today’s game in Norwell with a 6-4 record. King nearly guided Hanover to a second straight Patriot League Fisher Division championship, but the Indians lost, 14-6, to Rockland on Nov. 13.

Considering the Clippers, playing in the South Shore League, finished 0-11 last year, this fall’s winning record has been a huge accomplishment for Luccarelli’s squad. Sullivan has participated in some games, but Luccarelli has run practices all season and formulated the game plans.

It was a year and a half ago that Luccarelli, who lives in Hanover, almost turned in the blue and gold of Norwell for the blue and gold of the Indians. King, a Plymouth resident who cut his teeth as an assistant at Plymouth North and Pembroke, was selected as Norwell’s head coach in May 2008. His first order of business was to build a coaching staff.

“The first guys I sought out were Matt’’ and Brian Kelliher, another college teammate, King said. “My wife said, ‘What a story that would be since all you guys played at Western New England and could coach together.’ But Brian’s happy at Hingham,’’ where he’s the defensive coordinator, King said, “so it didn’t work out.’’

For Luccarelli, a volunteer assistant the previous four years at Norwell, a paid assistant job had just opened up on Sullivan’s staff and he took the job with his uncle. He is also a special education teacher at Norwell Middle School.

The friendship between King and Luccarelli was forged at Western New England, a Division 3 program in Springfield. They played together in the 1993 season, in which King, a junior wide receiver, set a single-season school record for receptions with 45 (a mark that has since been eclipsed). Luccarelli, a sophomore transfer from Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., was his quarterback.

“We didn’t have a lot of success, but we had a lot of fun,’’ said King, a Haddam, Conn., native who earned second-team honors from the now-defunct Eastern Collegiate Football Conference for that 2-6-1 season.

It was at WNEC where King’s connections to the South Shore took root. Kelliher, a sixth-grade math teacher in Weymouth, was a first-team safety who is enshrined in the college’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Another roommate who also hailed from Rockland, Rick Phelps, was a first-team punter and second-team kicker; it was Phelps, now a police officer in his hometown, who helped introduce King to his future wife, Denise, another Rockland native.

One of Luccarelli’s college roommates was running back Steve Carroll, a Hanover native who still regularly turns out for his alma mater’s games.

Of his memories with the Golden Bears, Luccarelli said with a laugh: “I held some good records - and some bad records.’’

The 1995 graduate still owns the career records for completions (228), attempts (521), yards (2,859) and interceptions (46). Luccarelli threw 11 touchdowns in a three-season span in which WNEC went 4-21-1.

Their college coach is not surprised that Luccarelli and King wound up teaching the game.

“They were like coaches on the field when they were players,’’ said Gerry Martin. “Matt was a solid, cerebral quarterback’’ who was always talking to the offensive coordinator about plays.

As for King, he said, a good comparison is New England Patriots receiver Wes Welker: “He’d get 5-6 yards a catch and bang out 12-13 after the catch. He was a gritty, smart receiver.’’

Their friendship was reignited through another shared South Shore connection - their wives. Luccarelli and his wife, Beth, who grew up in Norwell, were living in his native New Jersey, where he was teaching and coaching after college, but she wanted to be closer to her family. Luccarelli had other relatives on the South Shore besides Sullivan, who helped introduce him to his future wife at a football camp.

“We kind of drifted apart’’ after college, Luccarelli said of King. “I heard he had gotten married. I called him up and said, `Sorry I missed your wedding. I must have missed the invitation.’ That’s because I wasn’t invited - but it was a nice icebreaker.’’

It did not take long for the two couples to bond after the Luccarellis arrived in 2004. They’d go out several times a year, including for New Year’s Eve. They even had children roughly around the same time; the Luccarellis have two sons, Ryan (3 1/2) and Jack (7 months), while the Kings have a son, Sean (3), and a daughter, Anna (1 1/2).

When the two couples went out together for dinner last month sans kids, it didn’t take long for X’s and O’s to pepper the conversation.

“We like to give the boys a hard time because they think the glory days are great,’’ said Beth Luccarelli, a fourth-grade teacher in Hanover. “They talk football stuff, then they talk ‘normal’ stuff with us.’’

With Luccarelli running the show this fall, regular contact between the two did not change.

“Matt, to his credit, texts me every Friday: good luck,’’ King said. “Being the nontechnology guy that I am, I’d call him and say good luck to him. It’ll be interesting to see whether he’ll text me Thursday morning. It’s all amicable leading up to the game.’’

The two friends figure to be part of the rivalry for some time.

Luccarelli has impressed enough that he has positioned himself as Sullivan’s eventual successor.

“I see other programs have problems after someone who’s been there a long time is gone,’’ said Sullivan, who hopes to be on the sidelines today to close out his 21st season as head coach. “Having Matt established hopefully will help that transition when the time comes.’’