First place on the line at TD Waterhouse Stadium
With wins by each of the Hamilton Hurricanes and London Beefeaters this past weekend, a showdown of two 6-1 teams will go down in London this weekend. The winner will claim first overall in the OFC Junior standings after the regular season and a guarantee of home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Hamilton is coming off a 33-7 win over Burlington, and a London a big comeback 20-17 win over the Fratmen, to make each the only 6-1 teams after seven weeks. Both have secured home field for the first game of the playoffs, a feat accomplished by London for the first time since 1990, but the coveted position of first overall is still on the line.
As can be expected with 6-1 records, both teams are coming into Friday’s game riding a wave of confidence and long winning streaks. The Canes dropped their first game of the season to the Braves, but rebounded with six straight wins. London roared out of the gates with four wins, before a small blip in a 31-15 loss to Ottawa, which was quickly corrected with two more wins the past two weeks.
One thing that should be for sure, is that there should be lots of offence in the match up, with Hamilton ranking first in points for, and London in third, only three points back of Ottawa. The teams each hold impressive point differentials of +128 and +103 respectively as well. On defense, you can simply swap their rankings on offense, as London leads the league in points allowed, while Hamilton ranks third, only two points behind Windsor.
Speaking of Windsor, the Fratmen did themselves no favours by giving up a large halftime lead against London in their last outing, as the loss, coupled by wins by each of Ottawa and St. Leonard, sets up a three-way tie at 4-3 going into the final week of the regular season. With Brampton, Burlington and Twin City now eliminated from playoff contention, the Fratmen, Sooners and Cougars will fight for the remaining two road playoff spots on Saturday.
The Sooners would look to potentially have a slight advantage to claim one of those spots, finishing the year, at home, and playing a Braves team that has lost their past five games. However Burlington should be loose and could play the role of spoiler.
Windsor and St. Leonard will face each other in the other game with playoff implications at Stade Hebert and will already know the result of Ottawa’s game, being the last game of the night to kick off at 7:00 p.m.
Potential results in the standings for 3rd and 4th place:
- Ottawa win & St. Leonard win = Sooners (3) and Cougars (4) by virtue of Ottawa being ahead by 1 point in two head-to-head games
- Ottawa win & Windsor win = Fratmen (3) and Sooners (4) by virtue of Windsor’s head-to-head win
- Burlington win & St. Leonard win = Cougars (3) and Fratmen (4) by virtue of both Windsor and Ottawa being 4-4, but Windsor holding the head-to-head advantage
- Burlington win & Windsor win = Fratmen (3) and Sooners (4) by virtue of Ottawa being ahead by 1 point in two head-to-head games against St. Leonard
OFC STANDINGS
HAMILTON HURRICANES 6-1 PF 259 PA 131
LONDON BEEFEATERS 6-1 PF 208 PA 105
WINDSOR AKO FRAMEN 4-3 PF 155 PA 129
OTTAWA SOONERS 4-3 PF 211 PA 153
ST. LEONARD COUGARS 4-3 PF 151 PA 164
BRAMPTON BEARS 2-5 PF 136 PA 236
BURLINGTON BRAVES 2-5 PF 179 PA 198
TWIN CITIES PREDATORS 0-7 PF 60 PA 233
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