For the fourth year in a row, the Jr. Bills opened their season against the Rams, voted seventh in the preseason coaches' poll. As usual, Ladue played tougher than their ranking, holding SLUH to three goals in the first half. But the Jr. Bills' defense was better, limiting the Rams to only two tallies. Pieter Derdeyn held Ladue star Forrest Donnell in check, while in his first Varsity start, standing in for the injured Sean Sullivan, Player of the Game Cullen Gerber blocked most of the shots that came his way. In the second half, SLUH got the offense in gear, scoring the first five goals and cruising to a solid if unspectacular win. Seven different players found the net, but 20 missed shots and two late Ladue goals made the final score closer than it should have been. Game highlights included a 20-yard sprint from Michael Savio to prevent a counterattack, a smart steal and quick goal by Michael Slaughter, and a scrambling block by Gerber to stop a cherry-picker late in the fourth quarter.