De Soto High football coach Brad Scott found inspiration from an unlikely source recently.

Scott was driving one day when he heard Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel on the radio.

“He said, ‘Every coach in the country wants the defense ahead of their offense,'” Scott said. “That really kind of hit me. I’ve never heard of that before, but in our case that’s been the opposite.”

Not this year.

The Wildcats have compiled a 5-1 record this season largely because of defensive stops instead of offensive gains. Scott points to a host of players — such as senior linebackers Josh Oberhelman and Alex Mercer. Then there’s the stingy secondary formed by Neil Erisman, Leif Golman, Shawn Roberts and Brandon Hurd that has taken away any notion of an opposing aerial attack.

“This year our defensive kids have stepped up and played great for six ballgames,” Scott said.

De Soto will travel today to Perry-Lecompton. Kickoff is 7 p.m. P-L, Scott says, resembles his team.

“They’re one of those teams that aren’t going to trick you. … I have a lot of respect for a team like that,” Scott said. “We’re a lot like Perry. We want to pound (the ball). We want to eat up the clock.”

The Kaws (3-3) certainly pound the ball. Perry coach Mike Paramore said during its last game against K.C. Piper, his team ran 65 plays and only passed three times.

“If the running game’s going, you’re going to stick with it,” Paramore said. “You’re going to ride that horse.”

The Kaws have two horses in particular who have done the job. The combination of Cory McPherson (563 yards, five touchdowns on 122 carries) and Sean Blosser (467 yards, five touchdowns on 104 carries) have caused many defensive coordinators to scratch their heads.

Paramore said the Wildcats had several players in the backfield who had caught his attention as well, namely Golman at fullback and Erisman at quarterback. Throw in Tyler Farmer as the main running back, and tonight should be a ground war.

“We’re just going to try to be efficient with what we do,” Paramore said. “Defensively, somebody’s going to make some stops, and that’s going to be critical.”