In 2005, the De Soto and Ottawa High football squads had a similarity they would have rather not had – falling hard after a promising start to the season.

It’s only fitting the two schools square off in the 2006 season opener with attempts to have another quick start to the new season.

“Last year was tougher late in the season because we traditionally don’t have the numbers as some of the teams we went up against,” said De Soto coach Brad Scott, whose team went 1-3 in its final four games. “This year we have more depth than before, and we’re just really excited about having the strength in numbers like the other teams we play.”

While the Wildcats have depth, they do lack experience in the backfield. De Soto’s main offensive producer from a year ago, Neil Erisman, is now at Oklahoma State on a full-ride wrestling scholarship.

Though they will have a fresh-faced feature back in the huddle, their field general will be returning starter Jake Morse. But given Scott’s offensive mind-set, that may not be too significant.

“I’m one of those coaches that thinks when you throw the football only three things can happen,” Scott said, “and two of them are bad.”

With that mentality, Scott looks to go with a running back-by-committee game plan led by front-runners Dustin Ester and Shane Miller.

“We’ve had some kids that we’ve seen do it in practice,” Scott said, “but we don’t know how they’ll handle it under the pressures of a Friday night.”

While De Soto is without its offensive firepower from last year, the Wildcats do have a strong returning secondary on the other side of the ball.

“We’ve got Austin DeGraeve and Jerod Bader coming back, so we feel very comfortable at the edge,” Scott said. “We have some new linemen and linebackers, so most of our experience is at the corners.”

The similarities between the two squads are already popping up as Ottawa finds itself in the same backfield situation.

After serving part-time duties a year ago, Darius Johnson now will be looked upon to lead an offense made of youngsters who have been backups and part-time players to this point in their careers.

“He has a lot of athletic ability,” Ottawa coach Pat Boeh said. “We are just looking for a big year from him if we are to be successful.”

The other two offensive players who will spend time exchanging the football are just as “young and inexperienced” as Johnson. Last year’s backup quarterback, Ben Harris, will be receiving snaps from Jake Bove, who has spent a little time on the offensive line.

One more similarity Ottawa shares with De Soto is the secondary. Johnson is a returning defensive back, and Boeh said he would have Johnson playing both ways.

The Cyclones also will have Cory Bell, who started as a sophomore, returning at the linebacker position.

“Every year is a new year, and we don’t want to dwell on the past,” said Boeh, who finished with a 3-6 record in 2005 after starting the season with two wins. “It’s a little cliche, but we’re just going to work on getting better every day.

“We spent the last three weeks preparing for this game. It’s our first out of the chute, and then we want to continue to get better. Hopefully, like most teams in the state, we’ll be playing our best ball in games seven, eight and nine.”