The Falmouth High boys and Fryeburg Academy girls will try to defend their titles Saturday at the Ultimate state championships at the New Gloucester Fairgrounds.

Ultimate, a seven-on-seven game played by advancing a flying disc with throws and catches, has taken off in popularity as a club sport at Maine high schools over the past decade.

The Maine High School Spring League debuted in 2009 with eight teams. This year, 52 teams from 18 schools compete in four divisions (Boys A, Boys B, Girls and Mixed), with about 650 participants in total. Schools from the midcoast compete in the league, but most are from the greater Portland area. Westbrook and Gray-New Gloucester have teams in the boys’ division for the first time.

Saturday’s tournaments mark the fourth year of state championships for boys’ and girls’ teams, with the Falmouth boys and Fryeburg girls having won each of the first three years. Mixed championships date back to 2005 and will be held June 18 at Wainwright Recreation Complex in South Portland.

The boys’ tournament will feature eight teams in a single-elimination format, with the quarterfinals scheduled for 11 a.m. and the final at 3 p.m. Losing teams will continue to play each other to determine places three through eight. Games last 75 minutes, or until one team reaches 15 points. Teams get a point for each disc caught in the opponent’s end zone.

Top-seeded Falmouth is favored to repeat. “Falmouth boys have been a perennial power every year,” said Kevin Massey, coach of the Cumberland boys and co-director of the high school league.

Ben Field, Falmouth’s captain, feels confident heading into the tournament. “We were pretty lucky and only graduated one senior, so the squad looks about the same as last year. So far, we’ve had some juniors step up, like Sam Winkler and Jacob Skillin-Lanou, and also have some players back from injury, like Jack Hepburn. This year we have enough players … to be well-rested for our later games on Saturday.”

Falmouth beat Cape Elizabeth 13-4 in last year’s final. Cape Elizabeth captain Eli Babcock, whose older brother, Henry, helped lead Richmond to an NCAA Division III title, agrees that Falmouth is the team to beat. “(Falmouth) has handled us pretty easily the past few years, but I do think if we continue to develop our systems, the sky’s the limit for our squad.”

In the girls’ tournament, Fryeburg and last year’s runner-up, Cumberland, lost key players to graduation after last season. Cape Elizabeth enters as the top seed.

“We have a lot of depth on our team and some pretty talented players,” said Cape Elizabeth captain Grace Stoughton. She said the quality of girls’ Ultimate improved once the league started offering single-gender divisions in 2015 instead of strictly mixed teams. “Playing in the girls’ division gives girls more opportunity to hone in on skills that they would not necessarily have the chance to work on in a league where men outnumber women.”

The girls’ tournament will begin with pool play at 9 a.m. The championship game is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.