The CBC rugby team had been scoring almost at will on many of its opponents this season, but nearly met its match Friday evening.
The Cadet offense was held in check for most of the Missouri Rugby Football Union District B contest by rival St. Louis University High, but CBC scored on a try with just about a minute left and came away with a 12-10 victory.
"It was a pretty good defensive battle," Cadets coach Dan Brady said. "It was back and forth there for a while."
In boosting its mark to 5-2 on the season, the stout CBC defensive effort was led by Tom Vollmer, Sean England, Mitch England, Chris Gross and Austin Martinez.
"So far, we have played pretty good defense," Brady said. "We've shut out two teams and we've held most other teams to 20 points or below."
The task Friday was holding down a good SLUH team and the Junior Billikens jumped out in front 3-0 with an early penalty kick.
CBC, though, grabbed a 7-3 lead later in the first half when Eric Rhone scored on a try (which is worth five points) and Adam Pikul made good on the two-point conversion kick.
"He's played for three years now," Brady said of Rhone, who leads the team in tries this season. "He's a very, very talented player."
The Cadets enjoyed that four-point lead at halftime.
"We knew we were gonna have to step up our game up and get more points to win," Brady said. "We knew the 7-3 was not gonna last."
The Jr. Bills got a try and conversion kick with five minutes to play to surge ahead 10-7 and set the stage for the Cadets' late heroics.
With one minute to go, Rhone notched his second try of the game to make it 12-10. CBC missed on the conversion kick, but no matter as it held on for the victory.
"We were doing everything we could," Brady said of the Cadets' late run at the game-winning try. "We were able to make it happen."
CBC is off until Thursday when it will play a 4 p.m. game at DeSmet.
"They are a good team, too," Brady said. "It should be a great game."
