Two teams at the top of the conference will put four-game winning streaks on the line Saturday, when the Kingston Grenadiers face the Ottawa Myers Riders in an Ontario Varsity Football League game at the Beckwith Township field near Carleton Place.
Game time is 6 p.m.
Myers, the two-time defending league champion, hasn’t lost a game since 2012, and has actually won its last 26 league and playoff games in a row, outscoring opponents by an average of 53-15.
At 4-0 so far this year, the Riders lead the Wettges division, half a game ahead of Kingston and Metro Toronto, who are both 4-1. Ottawa hasn’t scored fewer than 48 points in a game this season, dumping 68, 72 and 62 points on its other hapless opponents.
The Grenadiers, who dropped a one-point decision on the opening weekend of the season, have won four in a row since then, most recently 44-28 over the Markham Raiders last weekend.
Saturday’s game marks the beginning of the difficult part of the Grenadiers’ season. Three of their first four victories have come against teams that remain winless; their final three—Saturday, against Ottawa, and subsequent home games against the Toronto Thunder and Metro Toronto—are against teams that to date are a collective 10-3.
Last season, Kingston lost to Ottawa 51-18 early in the year, then staged a dramatic second-half rally that fell just short in the conference final, as the Grenadiers ultimately bowed to the Riders 48-41.
The 41 points is by far the most allowed by the Riders in a game in the last three seasons.
Though the Riders continue to pile up points as always, it appears defensively they may be as suspect as they’ve been in some time—they’ve already allowed 63 points in their four games this season, compared to the 71 they surrendered in all eight games of their regular schedule a year ago.