The 5th Annual Chilly Bowl tournament hosted by Bay Area Disc Association took place on Sunday, Dec. 8. Middle school ultimate teams from all over the Bay Area converged at Wilder Fields in Orinda for this one-day competition to wrap the fall season.
Purple Reign, Piedmont Middle School’s ultimate team, competed in Division 1, seeded seventh out of eight teams. The team consisted of four returning varsity players, five returning JV players, and two first year players. Behind scrappy offense and tenacious defense, the Scots went 3-0 in pool play and found themselves in the championship game against perennial powerhouse, Catch & Release, a middle school club team based in Berkeley.
(photo credit: Scott Stewart)
Pool play featured standout handling performances from Aidan Stewart (8th grade), Ben McMurtry (8th grade) and Theo Cost (8th grade). Ben McMurtry led the team in goals scored. The team defeated BID (Burlingame) 9-5 in the first round of pool play.
The 2nd round game against KORE 1 (Korematsu) was a hard fought match with lead changes nearly every other point. Purple Reign came out on top 11-9 as time expired. The victory was buoyed by scoring that was spread out among eight players, including Ethan Grossberg (7th grade), Kai Lopez (8th grade), Naren Ramani (8th grade), and Spencer Tsai (8th grade). Gutsy, diving layouts by Ryan McMurtry (7th grade) and Jack Shim (8th grade) helped to power the team’s defense.
The final round of pool play was against Orchard City Stacks. (Campbell) which Purple Reign handily won 11-5. First year players, Xuan Tran (6th grade) and Gabriel Garrigues (6th grade) made contributions on the field on both offense and defense.
Purple Reign came out strong in the championship game going up 3-1, fell behind 3-6 at half time, and could not keep up with Catch & Release’s quickness and deep lineup.
Purple Reign finished the day in 2nd place, losing 6-11; but resoundingly beating seed and exceeding everyone’s expectations.