Fast Takes with Fast Break: Austin vs San Antonio

Authors: Sam Selle & Naresh Edala

PC: Major League Quidditch

Despite both teams cruising to 3-0 wins against their first opponents and historically playing each other close, San Antonio will likely struggle to keep up offensively with Austin and may even get blown out.

San Antonio is entering this weekend ready to take the top of the division. The league’s leading scorer, Miguel Esparza (who is also leading his team in assists), will be looking to continue holding that title through a fierce offensive style of play. With other quaffle players in the line up like  David Avila, Matt Blackwood, Amber Bonhomme, and Tim Nguyen, Esparza will have multiple opportunities to go for goals or assists as San Antonio looks to get 3 wins closer to a South Division title. The beating core on this team has lots of experience from multiple USQ and MLQ seasons, from Bradley Himes and Maya Hinebaugh to Katherine Hayworth and Baldemar Nunez. With experienced pairs who know how to play on any part of the field, these beaters will look to disrupt Austin’s ability to control the pace of the game. If there’s any team that’s hungry for a record changing win against Austin, it’s San Antonio, and this weekend may prove their chance. With Austin allowing an average 86.7 quaffle points against in their League City series, San Antonio will look to highlight and exploit those weaknesses. 

Austin excels offensively because they have multiple scoring threats on the pitch at any given time. They are always looking to fastbreak off of their beaters drawing in and blowing up the opposition. With aggressive beaters like Simon Arends, Kaci Erwin, Kyzer Polzin, and Jack Wang, the Austin beater squad loves to take engagements around their hoops on defense. Oftentimes these engagements result in the opposing beaters chasing down a bludger way off pitch. Immediately after this happens they press the opposing offense and force either a reset or a turn over. If it's a turnover, and it usually is, they will swiftly pick up the quaffle and sprint down the pitch for an easy goal against no bludgers. They also have no shortage of speed demons to carry the quaffle during these fast breaks; we're talking the likes of Josh Johnson, Keaton Mallory, and Augustine Monroe.

While fast breaks are common when there is a beater skill difference, Austin doesn't need to rely on that as their only way of scoring. In a standard offense the Austin chasers will form a "box" offense with two chasers up front and two behind hoops. The two chasers up front are often drivers like Josh Andrews, Dylan Bottoms, and Sammy Garza while the chasers behind are excellent cutters like Kasye Bevers, Swathi Mannem, Erin McBride, and Caroline Tao. Once in position, they will then pass the ball around a few times to create an opening in the defense, namely the point defender being out of position, before making their move. One of the chasers up front with the ball will drive towards hoops while simultaneously a chaser behind will already be cutting to the open hoop. The driving chaser then has the option once they reach the keeper line to either take a shot on the top hoop or dish off the ball to their awaiting companion at the undefended hoop. This makes it hard for the defenders to stop the goal as they have to both respect the drive while also guarding against the cut. The cherry on top of this offense is that Austin beaters, like Bailee Fields and Taylor Tracy, will sometimes even dive the opposing beaters to completely remove them from the defense making the drive all the more easy.

The question mark of this series will be snitch on pitch play. Both teams have different types of seekers ready to attack all types of snitch defense. From the overpowering Eric Reyes and Joshua Andrews, to the quick moves of Keaton Mallory and David Avila, and finally the compact seeking movesets of Catherine Hay and Swathi Mannem, the snitch of the series will have to constantly stay on their toes to last. Neither of these teams seem set on running away with the score in any game, so getting 35 points on the board could be the difference between first or second in the standings after this weekend.

To win this series, San Antonio must let cool heads prevail, and keep their players out of the box. With their aggressive transitional offense, they can stop Austin from setting up their defense and keep the quaffle points on their side. There are a lot of rivalries on pitch, from years of Texas State vs University of Texas to Heat vs Cavalry, so there aren’t many new cards either team will pull in the games this weekend. Every player will be looking to compete at the top of their game.

Prediction: Austin 3-0