Kingston Grenadiers will open the Ontario Varsity Football League playoffs at home Saturday afternoon, hosting the Oshawa Hawkeyes in a 1 o'clock game at Loyalist Collegiate.
The Grenadiers, 6-2, finished third in the Wettges Conference, behind Ottawa, 8-0, and West Durham, also 6-2 but favoured in the tie-breaker by virtue of a 28-27 win over the Grenadiers on the opening weekend of the season.
Oshawa, 4-4, finished sixth, behind fourth-place Cumberland and fifth-place Metro Toronto, both 5-3. Those two teams will meet in Saturday's other conference quarter-final.
Kingston and Oshawa did not meet during the regular year. The Hawkeyes beat Metro in their first game, but lost to their other three playoff-bound opponents: Cumberland, Ottawa and West Durham. They were 3-1 against teams that did not make the playoffs
Oshawa lost its last game, 33-30 to the Toronto Thunder, on Saturday.
The Grenadiers, idle last week, staged a stunning comeback in their last outing 10 days ago, scoring two touchdowns in the final four minutes of a game they ultimately won, 36-35 over Toronto, in overtime.
Kingston enters the playoffs on a two-game winning streak—having scored 87 points in those games—with a 4-0 mark against teams that failed to make the playoffs and a 2-2 record against teams that did.
The Grenadiers are 3-1 at home; the Hawkeyes are 1-3 on the road.