It was July 30 when the Westshore Rebels announced to the rest of the B.C. Football Conference that they would be a force in 2016 with a dominant win over the Vancouver Island Raiders.
The two teams have taken different paths to the playoffs since then, the Rebels losing just once on their way to a conference-leading 8-1-1 record, and the Raiders struggling with consistency before an impressive finish, which included a 14-8 upset of the Okanagan Sun in the penultimate game of the regular season.