Rivalry week comes nine weeks early for two schools

 This is usually the week where adrenaline is a little more intense at Seaside, where the campus is abuzz at Monterey, where players are bouncing off the walls, counting the days, checking their texts.
 There is no bigger game than a rivalry game, where alums flock back to campus to take in the annual showdown. Where kids from Seaside and Monterey are often neighbors.
 "You feel the emotion from second and third generations that have played in the game,'' Monterey coach Dan Brown said.
 Yet, a peek at the date and the realization is this is Week 2 of the season, not the final week of the regular season -- when rivalry games often occur.
 "You look at the rivalry different in Week 2,'' Seaside coach Al Avila said. "It's just not the same. It kind of kills the rivalry. It takes the theme out of it.''
 The Spartans and Monterey have played for 54 straight years -- with 49 of those games being held in the final week of the season.
 It's easily the biggest gate of the season, the most hyped event of the fall -- which is why Monterey moved Friday's Battle of the Bay to Monterey Peninsula College.
 "I'm in complete agreement with coach Avila that rivalry games should be at the end of the year,'' Brown said. "A lot goes into the first month of the season, and it's not always football related.''
 Avila, who has been around for more than 30 of these battles as a player and coach, hasn't felt that sense of excitement at practice or on campus this week.
 At least not yet.
 "You don't quite see the same spirit or fire,'' Avila said. "When you are playing in the final week, it doesn't matter how your season is going. There's the anticipation of the rivalry.''
 Avila has said in the past that this game is so intense between the two schools that it takes two weeks to recover emotionally.
 There is certainly still a lot to play for. A win by the Spartans -- who have won the past two games -- would even the series at 27-27-1.
 "I think the fire will be there come game time for us,'' Avila said. "It's still Monterey. It is still the color green on the other side.''
 Because the teams are no longer in the same division, it's a non-league game. The same thing is occurring in South County where Gonzales and King City are no longer in the same division.
 As a result, the game -- 80 plus years old -- will be held in Week 4 of the season, just before the start of league play for both teams.
 "If you moved the Carmel-Pacific Grove game to Week 2 instead of the final week, I bet it would take some of the zest out of it as well,'' Avila said.
 Avila admitted he's more concerned at this point in the season with his players grasping the system and improving in all facets of the game with league play three weeks off.
 "No doubt, the approach is different in September,'' Avila said. "We haven't installed our entire game plan. Your schemes are different. You're still finding out what you have.''
 Despite a 31-12 win over defending Central Coast Section Division IV champion Soledad last week, Avila wasn't pleased with the effort.
 "I just felt like we made a lot of mistakes,'' Avila said. "We can be much better, particularly on the defensive side. We're going to have to be."
 Monterey is also looking for its identity after suffering a 35-7 loss to Mountain View in its opener. It is a program that hasn't won a road game in the past two years.
 "You have to be careful with a young team,'' Brown said. "We're still trying to push the intensity and level. We're still pushing kids, trying to get that competitive nastiness in them.''
 The emotion of the game can have its drawbacks. The Toreadores failed to hold a 14-0 first-half lead in Week 3 of 2015, falling 22-21 in overtime to Seaside.
 An argument can be made that it changed the direction of Monterey's season. Instead of being 2-1, it was 1-2 and went on an eight-game losing streak.
 "It was a sour loss,'' Brown said. "A game like that can drain you and have lasting effects. But you can't dwell on it. You have to regroup and focus. This can't make or break your season.''
 That hasn't kept Avila from bringing up that battle two years ago this week. It's still the Battle of the Bay. The most talented team has not always won the game.
 "I reminded them it's still a rivalry game,'' Avila said. "We should not have won that game. Stranger things have occurred.''
 The epic finish might have been the best game of the season of any game that year.
 Seaside rallied to get to within two points late in the game. A penalty forced them to attempt a two-point conversion from 18 yards out.
  The Spartans converted and forced overtime.
 After Monterey scored on its first possession in overtime, the Spartans answered.
 Avila wasn't playing for a tie and a second possession in overtime.
 "I wanted to win,'' Avila said. "I didn't want to keep playing. We had the momentum. They could not stop our wedge. We were popping yards. I felt they had no answer. I said, 'Let's go for it.' "
 And while some will insist that the quarterback's knee was down before he crossed the plane for the two-point conversation, it held up, creating pandemonium among the crowd.
 The juices never stopped flowing for both sides for 48-plus minutes. That's what rivalry games are supposed to be about.