The California Pintos and Southern Boone Eagles met five weeks ago, with the Pintos capturing a 48-7 victory.
But the loss must have done the Eagles some good. They haven't lost since.
Southern Boone, which dropped its first six games of the season, won three straight to close out the regular season and then beat Owensville 40-24 last week in the first round of Class 3 District 6 play.
So the Pintos (10-0) know the Eagles (4-6) are getting hot at the right time, as they play at 7 p.m. today at Riley Field in the district semifinals.
"The first time we played them, they had a tight end and tried to run more power stuff," Pintos coach Marty Albertson said of the Eagles. "But now, they're more spread, as they don't have a tight end anymore.
"They've got a few kids that are really not bad players. They've got some speed and some agility, so they try to get them out in space kind of like we do. When they do, they're successful."
Granted, the Eagles' wins haven't come against a murderer's row, as those four opponents had a combined record of 9-31. Still, they did manage to beat Tri-County Conference foes in Warsaw (24-10), Versailles (48-3) and Eldon (19-14) before ripping the Dutchmen last week.
"They've won four games in a row and are playing with a lot of momentum right now," Albertson said. "We're looking for a big ballgame from them. We think they're going to come in ready to play.
"Every coach has a goal to get better as the season goes on, and obviously they have gotten better. It didn't surprise me at all they beat Owensville. I figured they'd beat them by two or three touchdowns, which they did."
The switch to the spread has made the Eagles more versatile.
"They do a lot of things off of it," Albertson said. "They run the jet sweep now and they'll run two or three plays off that. They'll run their straight isos up the middle off it after faking the jet sweep, or they'll fake their iso and go jet sweep, or they'll fake their iso and fake the jet sweep and the quarterback will keep it.
"They've got a pretty nice little package with what they're doing now. The kids have gotten comfortable with it and they're just playing better."
One thing hasn't changed since the first meeting.
"Truthfully, when we played them the first time, they were as physical a team as we played all year long," Albertson said. "They will hit you and they will play hard. We're looking for a good matchup."
Grant Sandifer, a senior, leads Southern Boone in rushing with 315 yards on 62 attempts (5.1 avg.), while junior Laron Wallace is next at 250 yards on 68 carries (3.7).
Dane Bossert, a junior, has completed 42-of-100 passes for 700 yards with seven touchdowns and nine interceptions. His favorite targets are junior Grant Anderson (15 catches for 194 yards and two touchdowns) and junior Gannan Mueller (13 for 201 with one touchdown).
The Pintos, ranked second in the state in Class 3, showed off their big-play capabilities in last week's 56-7 win against Versailles. Midway through the second quarter, California led just 14-7. By halftime, though, it was 34-7 and the rout was on.
"We scored, got an interception, scored, got a fumble, scored," Albertson said. "We had three touchdowns in about three minutes."
It was just a matter of time before the floodgates opened.
"The beginning of the game, it doesn't matter who you're playing, both teams are high on emotion," Albertson said. "If you're too emotional, there are mistakes made. We had a couple offsides penalties that hurt us. We started to settle down and when we did, we started playing pretty well."
Making things more difficult was losing left tackle Zach Cummings on the first offensive series with a sprained ankle that has him doubtful for today's game.
"It took awhile to get the new kids in the right places, but after that, we kind of exploded," Albertson said. "... You've got a new lineman coming in there after the other kids had been together all year. After a week of practice, it won't be so bad, but coming in after the third play of the game, it took awhile for things to get adjusted.
"(Cummings) sprained his ankle bad enough I don't think he'll be ready to go this week. We're working some other guys there and hopefully they will be able to fill in and he'll be ready in another week."
Another Pinto, tight end/linebacker Brandan Gump, should make his return this week.
"It should help the defense, since he's a good defensive player for us," Albertson said. "He's been out for a couple weeks with a bruised shoulder."
With a win tonight, the Pintos would host the winner of the Blair Oaks-Fulton game next Friday for the district title.
California hosts Southern Boone - Updates on Twitter: @PintosAthletics and @SBooneHS. Listen live online: pintosonline.com.