De Soto High football coach Brad Scott has done an impressive job this week of positioning his team as the underdog heading into tonight’s rivalry showdown with Eudora.

“Part of what makes them go is they have gotten to the point where they are a traditional power,” said Scott about the Cardinals. “That’s tough to go up against. We feel like we’re maybe building some of that, but we’ve got a long way to go.”

The scoreboard begs to differ.

Courtesy of last year’s 12-7 victory on its home field – a win that gave De Soto a share of the Frontier League’s Small 5 title – it’s the Wildcats who hold the upper hand as the two schools prepare for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Laws Field in Eudora.

De Soto (4-1) has taken a similar path through the opening five games of the 2005 season to the one it traveled a year ago. Last season, after a 4-0 start, the Wildcats received a rude awakening in an overtime loss to Anderson County, setting the stage for the Eudora game.

This year, De Soto’s wake-up call came a week earlier in a 14-7 loss to Wellsville, allowing the opportunity for a rebound – and revenge – victory last week against Anderson County.

“I think the loss to Wellsville maybe solidified some of the things we (the coaches) were trying to get through that weren’t getting through,” Scott said.

“We got a lot better last week. … If we build on what we did last week, I think we should be all right (tonight).”

Eudora (5-0) also wouldn’t mind a carryover effect from a week ago.

After a topsy-turvy opening four weeks that saw the Cardinals alternate solid victories with nail-biters, coach Gregg Webb’s squad finally put it all together last Friday in a 61-6 rout of Central Heights.

“After the game, I really thought we had made some big improvements,” Webb said. “We were real sharp, real clean.

“But I think all our kids know that’s just one night.”

In order to make it back-to-back successful nights, Webb has a list of things his team must do to exact revenge against the Wildcats.

Run the football.

Hold on to the football.

Eliminate big plays and “cheap” points.

And perhaps most important, set the tone in the opening minutes and ride the emotional tidal wave that often accompanies rivalry games involving high school athletes.

“Hopefully, we can be sharp early and kind of get back into that rhythm of last week,” Webb said. “There’s no doubt we don’t want to give them any life.”