The St. Louis U. High varsity ultimate frisbee team faced the Ladue Rams on Friday April. 16 and rival De Smet on Sunday April. 18 , dropping both matchups.

On Friday, the Jr. Bills took on Ladue’s varsity squad in what turned out to be the closest game of the season so far. The game began with the Jr. Bills making an early drive of two points but were met with equal response by the Ladue team. The biggest problem the Jr. Bills faced against Ladue were the Rams’ intense deep cuts to the end zone. These proved vital to the Ladue’s success as by halftime the Rams managed to utilize the deep runs to make the game 8-3, putting the Jr. Bills down by five going into the second half.

“Their fundamentals were much stronger than us,” said junior Tom Nguyen. “But, after the first half, we were able to notice our mistakes and learned to correct them.” 

At the start of the second half, with the help of a “blue wagon” chant, the Jr. Bills were able to bring back the momentum and a comeback spirit to the game. SLUH opened the second half with a drive of two points and doubled that total a few minutes later, setting the stage for a big comeback. 

“Something just clicked for all of us and we all just went ham on the field,” said Nguyen. 

The Jr. Bills outscored Ladue 9-7 in the second half, but it wasn’t enough for a comeback victory as Ladue held on to win 15-12. 

The Jr. Bills other weekend matchup was against the De Smet Spartans. De Smet is notorious for its history in ultimate frisbee, as it holds multiple state titles and is often SLUH’s most competitive opponent every year. The Jr. Bills started the game with a strong offensive drive. Junior Tom Nguyen scored the first point of the game, which forced an early timeout call by De Smet. The team was extremely fired up after taking the early lead, but had to stay sharp as the game was far from over. 

As the game progressed the Jr. Bills found success in a slowed tempo with shorter reset passes to side handlers and 5-yard to 10-yard passes to cutters. The handlers of both teams had possession for most of the game, and took huge control over end zone plays. They found great success in sending their throws long with a charged backhand or a driving hammer into the end zone.

“We have some great handlers who have a wide variety of throws,” said junior handler Nick Esson. “Teams don’t always expect hammer throws but our handlers were able to pull them off.”

By the start of the second half the Spartans had built up a 8-2 lead. The Jr. Bills tried to set the stage for a comeback but the Spartans kept the majority of possession of the second half only allowing three more goals in the second half. The final score came to 15-5, De Smet. 

SLUH JV saw its debut last Monday, losing 10-9 to Ladue’s B team. 

Now that both SLUH ultimate frisbee teams’ seasons are underway, they have four weeks of games left before playoffs. Varsity (1-2) is now on a bye week, and JV (0-1) is set to play Marquette this afternoon. Both teams are looking to amp up their defensive marks and strengthen cuts in the upcoming two weeks of practice for their upcoming games against De Smet and Cor Jesu on May 2.