The York University Lions football team will be battling for a playoff spot when the squad travels to Guelph, Ont., on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 22) for its regular season finale against the defending Yates Cup champion Guelph Gryphons.
 
Kick-off is set for 1pm at Alumni Stadium and the game can also be seen live online on OUA.tv.
 
The two teams enter the contest with matching 2-5 records and will be looking for an important third victory that could secure the sixth and final playoff spot in the OUA. Both squads also need the No. 9 nationally-ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees to defeat the Queen's Gaels and the No. 7 Laurier Golden Hawks to knock off the Windsor Lancers in order to clinch the post-season berth. 
 
For the Lions, a trip to the playoffs would be a first under head coach Warren Craney and the first for the program since 2004. The Gryphons, meanwhile, find themselves in unfamiliar territory battling for the final spot after several years near the top of the standings and a conference championship one season ago.
 
The Lions started the season with two wins in their first three games, over the Waterloo Warriors and Windsor Lancers, but have since dropped four in a row. Despite the recent struggles on the scoreboard, the Lions feature an offence with plenty of weapons and have continued to move the ball, averaging 431.3 yards per game.
 
The Gryphons also have an offence that can wrack up yards with an average of 462.7 per game on the season. Like the Lions, they won two of their first three contests, over the Toronto Varsity Blues and Gaels, and have also lost four in a row since. Two of their losses in that stretch were by three points or less, to a pair of nationally-ranked teams in Ottawa and Laurier.
 
Guelph quarterback James Roberts and his counterpart at York, Brett Hunchak (Calgary), rank third and fourth, respectively, in passing yards per game with 277.4 and 269.9. Hunchak's favourite target has been his younger brother Colton Hunchak (Calgary), who ranks fifth in the OUA with 79.6 receiving yards per game and is tied for third with five touchdowns. The Gryphons' top receiver is A'dre Fraser with 76 yards per game.
 
Defensively, Lukas Korol is second in the OUA with 55.5 tackles this season, while York is led by fifth-year defensive back Josh Small (Pickering, Ont.), who has 37.
 
The Gryphons won the most recent meeting between the two teams, by a score of 49-22 at York last year. The Lions have not defeated the Gryphons since 2005, when they won 22-15.
 
Should one of York or Guelph clinch the final playoff spot, they will travel to the home of the third seed next weekend for an OUA quarter-final game on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 29).