The Jr. Bills Ultimate frisbee teams faced another action-packed weekend with five games being played in the span of three days. Varsity took on Edwardsville’s White and followed with a double header the next day against Edwardsville’s Orange team and Chaminade, while JV faced off against CBC JV and Clayton. 

Varsity and JV both kicked off the weekend with a game last Friday. Both games were away with the varsity squad crossing the river to play in Edwardsville while the JV squad headed over to CBC. The Jr. Bills had a touch first half against the Cadets, whose deep throws and tight defense choked out a lot of the offensive opportunities for the Jr. Bills. This led to a halftime score of 8-2 in favor of the Cadets. 

The team reflected at halftime how to ramp up their offense and to get more scoring opportunities. 

“We really challenged them on defense,” said freshman Quin Apprill-Sokol. “We tried to force them to turn the disk over by applying more pressure on them at each throw.” 

The new defensive focus opened a surplus of offensive opportunities for the Jr. Bills, who outscored  the Cadets 8-7 in the second half. The deep throws became a backbone of the second half for both teams as it became the primary way points flew in. 

“We always had at least one person going deep and that really helped open things up,” said Apprill-Sokol. 

The game however ended in a loss for the Jr. Bills as they weren’t able to stage a full comeback, leaving the final score 15-10 CBC.

Across the Mississippi River, the varsity squad took on Edwardsville’s White team. This was the first game against any of the Edwardsville teams and the Jr. Bills wanted to start off strong. The game opened with both teams going point for point but the Tigers managed to catch a break and build a lead of 8-5 at halftime. The main reason behind this was the Tiger’s ability to break a defensive mark and throw to open handlers. 

By the middle section of the second half, the Jr.Bills had managed to make the score 12-10, demonstrating how the new focus on lockdown defense was paying off. However the Tigers kept their lead and hung on to win, 15-11. 

Saturday marked a huge challenge for the varsity squad, who had to play Edwardsville Orange the next morning and then Chaminade immediately after. The JV squad also had a game against Clayton at the same time as the varsity game against Chaminade. These games marked a return to home with all of them being played at the football or soccer turf fields. 

Against Edwardsville’s Orange team, the first half kicked off with a dominant performance by the Jr. Bills’ offensive line. The handler-cutter pair of seniors Cameron Freeman and Anthony Solari racked up early points. The Jr. Bills defensive line also saw a rise in intensity and a growing number of points put on the board. The Jr. Bills’ defensive line was hungry for points and took every opportunity to gorge themselves on deep 20- to 30-yard throws. This was especially apparent through the combo of handler Thornberry and cutter Grabowski, who were able to capitalize on the deep throws throughout the game. 

“We played the game with a solid determination to win,” said senior Daniel Juergens. “That game meant a lot to us in terms of confidence going into state so we all knew it was important to perform well in the game.” 

Their performance kept on like a bullet train, with deep throws powering the Jr. Bill's path to a 15-9 victory 15-9. 

JV and Varsity played their next games against Clayton and Chaminade at the same time, JV on the football turf and varsity on the soccer field. JV kicked off a few minutes before varsity and marked the start of a long and hard-fought game. Like in the JV squad’s game against CBC, deep throws were the main way of putting points on the board. Clayton’s team took control of the first half through hard deep cuts and straight shot disks to the cutters. By halftime the Jr. Bills faced a sizable challenge of coming back from 8-4. 

Throughout the second half the  Jr. Bills were able to build a sense of grit and to keep fighting all throughout. The game was finally called due to the time cap of two hours being reached; the Jr. Bills lost 14-9. 

Across the circle drive, the varsity squad took on Chaminade for their second game of the day, less than an hour after their win over Edwardsville Orange. This game was one of the hardest fought games of the season for the Jr. Bills and marked their third game in 24 hours and the fatigue and soreness began to set in. 

The first half began with a streak of Jr. Bills scores for an early 2-0 lead. This domination, however, slowly faded. At halftime the Jr. Bills led Chaminade 8-4, but the second half marked a complete shift in the game control, as Chaminade outscored the Jr. Bills 9-6.

The game was hard fought all throughout and, like the JV game against Clayton, faced a time cap. At the time cap the Jr.Bills were leading 13-12 and were looking to walk away with a victory. However, through constant nagging and loose justification of their last game being time-capped Chaminade argued that the game should go on for two more points. In this sort of overtime scenario, the Jr. Bills only had to score one more point to secure the victory while Chaminade had to put up two points for the victory. The Jr. Bills started on defense and a deep throw by a Chamiande handler tied the game at 13. 

With the game now tied and only one more point to play this meant that both teams had a “golden goal” scenario with the next point giving them the victory. As the Jr. Bills lined up for an offensive drive, handler Cameron Freeman set up a play to hit cutter Jared Thornberry deep in the end zone. As the pull of the disk came to them the Jr.Bills moved the disk up the field with short five yard passes. Finally around the half field mark Freeman lined up a deep 40-yard thow to the end zone. Thornberry made the deep cut and Freeman sent the disk long. Chaminade played a tight man on man defense on Thornberry but he broke free for a one-handed diving catch for the final point of the game, cementing a Jr. Bills’ victory of 14-13. 

“We were already tired from playing the game and ready to get out of there, but we were able to come together as a team and get the dub one last rally,” said Thornberry. “It was a great setup all around and amazing to see it all come together.”

With the packed weekend to a close both teams have now concluded their regular season schedules. Varsity ended with a record of 4-3 and JV with a record of 3-4. However both teams are continuing play in the SLUJ State Tournament. Both varsity and JV have their first games of the tournament with varsity having a rematch with Edwardsville White on Wednesday, May 12 in Edwardsville, while the JV squad will play De Smet’s JV team at De Smet. 

“We have to focus on catching frisbees and making simple throws and to not allow the other team to not get possession. If we can shut down their drives, the game is ours. We’ve learned from our mistakes and are hungry to go far in the tournament,” said Thornberry.