PASCO -- For the third consecutive season, the Waitsburg-Prescott football team is facing Colfax or elimination.

The Cardinals hope this time they make history.

Waitsburg-Prescott will play Colfax at 3 p.m. today at Edgar Brown Stadium in a Class 2B state semifinal.

It is the same matchup of a year ago, when Colfax won 21-14.

Colfax also eliminated Waitsburg-Prescott in the first round of the playoffs in 2009.

"We aren't playing for revenge," Waitsburg-Prescott coach Jeff Bartlow said, "but respect and redemption. We are trying to play for four quarters and for winning. We are trying to be where we have never been before."

Bartlow will coach in his third semifinal, and Waitsburg hopes to advance to its first state championship game. Prescott has made three state title games, the most recent in 2001.

The team, made up of students from Waitsburg and Prescott high schools and Jubilee Christian Academy, has never made it past the semifinals in the five seasons the schools have combined for football.

"To win (this game) would be a dream come true," Waitsburg-Prescott lineman Eshom Estes said. "It is history in the making for our school. I'm sure everyone through Waitsburg, Prescott and Jubilee (Christian) would be amazed.

"I think we can do it this year."

To finally reach the finals, the Cardinals -- the mascot depends on where the team practices, if in Waitsburg it is the Cardinals, if in Prescott it is the Tigers -- must defeat a team that only lost once in the last two seasons.

That loss came in the state title game.

"Last year we did great to start," Estes said of the Cardinals taking a 14-0 lead with a minute left in the first half. "We just couldn't end well. I think we practiced harder to do better. I think our team has gotten stronger from last year and learned better how we can run our own schemes to defeat them."

Last season, the Cardinals led 14-0 and were forced to punt with about a minute left before halftime.

Colfax promptly marched down the field and scored right before halftime.

The touchdown took a lot out of the Cardinals.

"Those touchdowns before the half are tough on the kids," Bartlow said. "It was such a huge letdown. It was the first time I'd seen us look like that all year. We played good in the third, but then they tied it, and we played trying to hang on instead of being aggressive."

The Cardinals don't plan on that happening today.

Rather, they hope to make history.