The York University Lions football team will head east on the 401 to Kingston, Ont., on Saturday to face the Queen's Gaels in their annual Homecoming game at Richardson Stadium.
 
Kick-off is set for 1pm and the game can be seen live on CHCH and online on OUA.tv.
 
Both the Lions and Gaels enter the contest with some momentum after slow starts to their respective seasons.
 
The Lions have shown significant improvement after a challenging first two weeks of the season. The highlight was a dominant 41-16 victory over the Toronto Varsity Blues in the 48^th Red & Blue Bowl in Week 5. Prior to that the Lions led the nationally-ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees in the fourth quarter before a 26-17 loss, and last week the Lions showed an impressive offence and special teams but struggled defensively in a 53-31 defeat to the defending OUA champion Laurier Golden Hawks.
 
The Gaels, meanwhile, dropped their first four contests but have rallied to win each of their last two. Following defeats to Carleton, Ottawa, Laurier and Western, the Gaels earned a pair of lopsided victories over Windsor and Waterloo, defeating the Lancers 54-10 on the road and the Warriors 68-17 at home one week ago.
 
Both squads feature tremendous players under centre and the game is poised to be a quarterbacking duel between York's Brett Hunchak and Queen's pivot Nate Hobbs. Hunchak ranks sixth in the OUA with 239.7 yards per game and is completing 61.5 per cent of his passes while throwing seven touchdowns and eight interceptions, although just one in his last three games. Hobbs is second in the conference with 295.3 yards per game, completing 61.1 per cent of his passes with 12 touchdowns and three interceptions.
 
Their last meeting came in the 2015 season finale and was a thriller, with the No. 10 nationally-ranked Gaels escaping York with a 33-32 victory. The game was Hunchak's coming out party as the then-rookie completed nearly 70 per cent of his passes and accumulated 381 yards, both career highs at the time. The two teams did not face one another last year.
 
After Saturday's game, both teams will have one more contest in the regular season and both on the road. The Lions will head to Windsor, Ont., to face the Lancers while the Gaels will be at the University of Toronto to take on the Varsity Blues. Both games will take place on Oct. 21 at 1pm.