It’s when they beat Killeen Ellison 39-7 at Leo Buckley Stadium to complete a 6-0 march through District 13-5A for their first outright league championship since 1995 and their first perfect district record since 1985.

However, there’s also a problem with Nov. 8, 2007.

That’s the last time Temple won a football game.

Nine days later at Buckley, the Wildcats were edged 34-31 in overtime by eventual state finalist Pflugerville in the first round of the Class 5A Division II playoffs.

This season, Temple has lost to non-district opponents Cedar Park, Leander and second-ranked Plano and District 12-5A foes College Station A&M Consolidated and No. 9 Copperas Cove by a combined score of 170-94.

It’s been a difficult schedule to be sure, but Temple coach Bryce Monsen says enough is enough as his Wildcats (0-5 overall, 0-2 in 12-5A) travel back to Buckley to battle Ellison (3-2, 1-1) at 7 tonight.

“This has been a schedule for the books and we’ve played some awesome teams,” said Monsen, whose squad suffered a 56-14 home loss to Cove last week. “We could have won two or three of those games but we didn’t, and you are who you are. Somewhere along the way, we need to start winning.

“We have to win, and who we play doesn’t matter. Our seniors held a team meeting. They know we have a sense of urgency.”

With four regular-season games remaining after tonight, Temple isn’t technically in must-win mode. But for all intents and purposes, the Wildcats probably have to prevail to stay in the hunt for their third playoff appearance in the last nine years.

Cove and A&M Consolidated are looking very much like playoff teams, and Bryan is expected to seize one of the other two postseason berths. That would leave just one playoff spot, and with a win tonight first-year head coach Buddy McBryde and Ellison would lead Temple by two games and also capture the head-to-head tiebreaker.

“They’re all important, but we know that the winner of this game will definitely take a step in the right direction,” Monsen said. “The way we look at it is that it’s one game at a time, but you probably need to win at least four district games to get into the playoffs.

“We’re still excited about the season, because everything’s still out in front of you,” he added. “Our kids have been very enthusiastic in practice this week and have done everything we’ve asked.”

On Ellison’s side, McBryde certainly isn’t putting too much stock in Temple’s winless record. It was only 11 months ago that the Wildcats ran for 395 yards and five touchdowns against the defense he coordinated, and he knows that Temple has the talent to get back on the winning track.

“I think Temple’s the best 0-5 team in the state, because they’ve played some incredible teams and still played pretty good football,” said McBryde, who was Bret Boyd’s defensive coordinator for three seasons, all of which ended with playoff trips. “Temple made some mistakes against Cove, but we know Cove is capable of doing that to you.”

Ellison began 12-5A play with a 45-0 loss at then-unranked Cove, but the Eagles responded by capitalizing on interceptions and rushing for 311 yards in their new Wing-T offense in a 45-28 victory over Harker Heights last Thursday at Buckley.

McBryde admits that win kept Ellison in the playoff race.

“We view all district games as must-win games, because you never know who’s going to win or lose and it might all get jumbled by the end,” he said. “Our team goal is to get into the playoffs, and it’s one game at a time and one step at a time.”

McBryde switched Ellison from a shotgun-spread offense to the Wing-T following Boyd’s departure, and the Eagles were strong last week as Jaron Turner rushed for 144 yards and Texas Tech commitment Daniel Cobb ran for 137 and three scores.

“This is his fourth year on the varsity, and he’s very much of a leader,” McBryde said of Cobb, who also stars on defense at rover. “He’s a better person than he is a player, and that’s saying a lot.”

Immediately after Temple’s lopsided homecoming loss to Cove, Monsen said his team would “burn the film.”

Apparently he was only half-joking.

“We looked at half of the film, and we’ve made our corrections and moved on,” Monsen said. “We were all embarrassed. You have to give a lot of credit to Cove, but there’s a lot of things we did not do well. We took a look at ourselves, the coaches and the players.

“I take full responsibility as the coach for how we played. We played them tough for 1½ quarters, then we had a bad turnover and our energy left us. We never got it back."

Now, Monsen certainly hopes his Wildcats get that energy back tonight - just in time to become a major player in the 12-5A playoff battle.

“We’ve been fighting it a little bit, and our kids would like to see a ‘W,’” Monsen said. “Good things happen to good people, and something good’s got to go our way."

gwille@temple-telegram.com