Saturday, October 20, 
1pm
Alumni Stadium, Guelph
No. 8 Guelph Gryphons (4-3) vs Waterloo Warriors (4-3)
Online:  www.oua.tv



 

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GUELPH, Ont. – As OUA football heads into the final Saturday of the 2018 regular season, the playoff scenarios are seemingly endless. For the Guelph Gryphons and Waterloo Warriors, however, the message is simple: win on Saturday and guarantee yourself a spot in the postseason.

Both the Warriors and Gryphons enter Saturday's game with identical 4-3 records. Win, and the Gryphons could host an OUA quarter-final next week (potentially against the very same Warriors). Lose, and the Gryphons could fall anywhere from the No. 6 seed in the conference, to out of the playoffs altogether depending on out-of-town results. In short, Saturday's matchup between the Warriors and Gryphons is essentially a playoff game for both sides.

"We've tried not to put the focus too much on the outcome. We as coaches obviously know that this has a big impact, but we're just keeping our players focused on the fact that this is a good football team we're playing," says Gryphons head coach Todd Galloway.

"The Warriors have a lot of weapons, especially on offence, that we need to account for. So our emphasis has been on taking care of those things in order to control our own fate."

Saturday's matchup at Alumni Stadium pits one of the most explosive offences in the country in Waterloo, against one of the toughest defensive units in U SPORTS in Guelph. If the Gryphons are to secure a win on home field, the focus will need to be on containing Waterloo's sophomore sensation, Tre Ford.

The 2017 U SPORTS Rookie of the Year currently leads the OUA in all three of the major passing categories (touchdowns, yards, and yards per game). "The best way for us to contain some of their offensive weapons is for our offence to stay on the field," adds Galloway. "The game plan is to play disciplined football. You're not going to completely stop a guy like Tre Ford from bein an athlete, so we just need to try to limit what he's capable of doing and keep him off the field as long as possible."

A season ago, the Gryphons edged the Warriors in an instant classic at Warrior Field, where Guelph scored 27 points in the fourth quarter to leave Waterloo with a 53-49 win. This year, the Gryphons will be carrying plenty of momentum into the final week of the regular season after back to back wins over Laurier and Toronto. For head coach Todd Galloway, the overall growth of his players is something that has been noticeable since the regular season kicked off two months ago.

"I really don't think we're the same team that we started the season as. We knew we were going to have some new guys in new spots, but the guys have really started to come together. Theo (Landers) has really started to settle in as a starting quarterback, we knew we were going to be young and inexperienced at running back, and that's starting to come around as well. And we knew our back end was young on the defensive side, and that group is starting to come together pretty nicely."

Aside from keeping a close eye on the OUA standings on Saturday, Gryphon fans will also be on national record watch with fifth-year kicker Gabe Ferraro. Ferraro enters the final game of the season needing to make five field goals to establish a new U SPORTS regular season record for made field goals in a career. The current record his held by former Calgary Dinos kicker Johnny Mark (2011-2015) who connected on 91 field goals during his career. Ferraro, the reigning OUA Special Teams Player of the Week, was 6-for-6 a week ago against U of T. 

A breakdown of the 2018 OUA playoff scenarios can be found on oua.ca. The