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The laminated newspaper clippings are on the wall in the Florida Firecats office, on the second floor of the building where the game was played.

The banner hangs from the rafters.

Back in August 2004, as the community patched the holes left by Hurricane Charley's wrath, the Firecats defeated the Peoria Pirates, 39-26, before 6,491 at Germain Arena, winning Southwest Florida's first professional sports title.

The keepsakes, the images and the memories are always there -- as real as the ring Firecats coach Kevin Bouis, the Florida defensive coordinator during its championship season, wears every time his team takes the field.

But they will be even more vivid at 7:30 tonight, when the Pirates (2-2) run beneath Florida's championship banner for the first time and face the team that beat them in ArenaCup 5. They'll have the look and feel the Firecats (4-0) remember.

"It brings back some old memories," said Florida wide receiver/defensive back Brent Burnside, one of three active Firecats who earned a ring when they won the franchise's lone arenafootball2 title.

On the night Burnside and his teammates hoisted the hardware, he couldn't have imagined it would take four years for a Florida-Peoria rematch to materialize. He couldn't have imagined the Pirates, who won seven playoff games in their first four seasons as an af2 franchise, would hand in their membership card a few months after losing that game.

With attendance figures on the decline, Peoria's ownership group was looking for ways to cut costs. So the Pirates became the Rough Riders. They changed their uniforms. They bolted for United Indoor Football, where they'd spend the next two seasons. They folded in August 2006, suffering from what seemed an identity crisis.

Now, they're back.

They've picked up, seemingly, right where they left off. They're the Pirates again. They're wearing the same colors -- silver and black -- and the same skull-and-crossbones logo. They even have the same coach, Bruce Cowdrey, leading virtually the same coaching staff.

"Same everything," Bouis said.

About the only difference, this time, will be the stakes. Tonight will mark the first time the teams have met without ArenaCup hardware on the line.

Peoria knocked off Florida, 65-47, in Illinois to win the championship in August 2002, the second season in the league for each team.

Then came '04.

Unable to book a flight to Florida -- thank Charley for that -- the Pirates made a 26-hour bus trip through the night to reach ArenaCup 5. They had to be in town that Wednesday, two days before they faced the Firecats.

Their opponent, meanwhile, was riding a thunderbolt of emotion. They'd already overcome the loss of defensive lineman Dunstan Anderson, who died in a car accident midway through the season. They'd won back-to-back road playoff games. When they returned to Germain to play Peoria, it was Florida's first home game since the hurricane.

Brandon Kornblue connected for two field goals in the first quarter, one in the third and one in the fourth. Burnside, who caught three passes and intercepted another, earned Ironman of the Game honors.

"I think Florida was a team of destiny," recalled Cowdrey, who has been the Peoria coach for four of its five seasons in the league. He has a 7-1 record in af2 postseason games. "They were playing with an enormous amount of emotion."

That emotion is written on the face of a younger Ken Mastrole, whose jubilation that night lives in the laminated press clippings.

He's smiling. Laughing. Rejoicing.

Mastrole's still a Firecat, four years later. But he hasn't thrown a pass since leading the ArenaCup triumph.

The championship game marked the end of Mastrole's playing career. He transitioned to offensive coordinator the following season.

"Growing up all your life," Mastrole said, "you want to win a championship. There's guys that have played in every league and in every sort of sport and they never get a championship. Nothing beats winning -- especially when it's to get a ring."

No one is getting a ring tonight, of course.

The Firecats are looking to start 5-0 for just the second time. The Pirates are looking to post their first winning streak of the season.

That's the stakes.

But the site of the Pirates in Germain Arena -- the silver and black, the skull and crossbones --will bring back memories of Florida's most glorious time.

It is a rematch four years in the making. It is a look back at where the Firecats have been -- and a reminder of where they want to go.

"We know what it takes to get there," Burnside said. "And I think we're on the right path."