Paola ? When the Eudora and Paola high school football teams last faced off on Sept. 27, the Cardinals showed complete domination, routing the Panthers 44-0 behind two-touchdown performances by Andrew Pyle and Tyler Jackson.

Rest assured, Eudora coach Gregg Webb doesn’t expect a pushover the second time around.

“That’s what time and the season is all about, to work out kinks,” he said. “They had a young team back then, and a team a little bit on the ropes with injuries. They were a completely different team.”

Tonight, the Paola-Eudora rematch is on, this time in Paola, and this time with much more on the line. The winner of today’s 7 p.m. game will face the winner of the Topeka Hayden-Fort Scott showdown in the state semifinals.

The winner of that game will play for the state title on Nov. 30 in Pittsburg.

“The kids all have goals and aspirations,” Webb said. “But I think they’re starting to figure out that it’s one game at a time, one play at a time. All those things are forever away unless you take care of what you have to to get there.”

Eudora (10-1) no doubt has proved itself as one of the top Class 4A teams in Kansas. The Cards’ only loss, to Baldwin on Oct. 11, was by one point. They won the rematch with the Bulldogs four weeks later.

Lately, though, Paola has played as good as anybody. It cruised past a strong Girard team, 31-14, on Saturday, and has established an impressive ground game, led by running back Nathan Payne and quarterback Steve Kemplay.

Kemplay, who sat out the first game against Eudora nursing a shoulder injury, has amassed 736 yards of rushing of 166 carries. An effective running quarterback, Webb says, might be even more dangerous than an effective running back.

“You’re usually playing 11-on-10 on most offenses,” Webb said, “because the quarterback usually just hands the ball off. But when you have a quarterback capable of running the ball, it’s a handful to try and stop.”

Eudora topped Kansas City Piper 20-6, thanks in part to two second-half touchdowns from Pyle. The Cardinals’ top rusher is just 109 yards shy of his second straight 2,000-yard season, a goal that’s within striking distance for the senior workhorse.

While Eudora’s focus is to stop Paola’s run, Webb has no doubts that the Panthers’ defensive game plan is nearly identical.

“We go into any game forcing teams to throw it,” Webb said. “We like to think we’re going to stop the run. Everybody tries to really get up in our face, too.”

Webb admits that a once-pushover Paola squad should concern EHS now.

“They played real well against a good Girard team,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been so bad if they won, but they won so convincingly that their kids are really feeling good about themselves now.”