Fast Takes with Fast Break: Charlotte v Boston
Authors: Michael Li & Alexander Wicken
PC: Major League Quadball
This Saturday, the Charlotte Aviators are shipping up to Boston to face the Forge to begin their respective seasons. This will be the second weekend of games in the East Division after the New York Titans swept the Washington Admirals in three games on June 3rd. During last year’s meeting, Boston swept Charlotte in a three-game series. Two of the three games were kept close with Charlotte overcoming a deficit and taking the lead during flag runner on pitch. After the catch, though, the Aviators struggled to maintain control of the game and saw many long passes picked off by the Forge defense resulting in two Boston comebacks.
The Boston Forge, with a long history of dominating the division, have regular season losses that you can count on one hand. While they go into this weekend looking very much the favorites, Boston looks as vulnerable as they ever have with the loss of some key beating pieces. While most of their important pieces in the chaser game are returning, anyone who plays in the chaser game knows it's so much easier to score when your beaters are dominating.
The Charlotte Aviators return most of their beater core and two USNT members in Ryan Davis and Celine Richard. In their chaser and keeper game, however, they will have to adapt to the absence of three of their top five leading scorers from last season in Trey Pressley, Quincy Hildreth, and Logan Hartman. Hodge, the lead scorer from last season, may look to earn more goals in transition, or fall back on assists, another statistic they led Aviators. If Hodge needs a break, Mohamed-Yahia Monawar showed an ability to facilitate with many different lines last year as another top facilitator for the 2022 Charlotte team. We expect Monawar will take flight this series as he starts off his second MLQ season with Aviators. On the defensive end, Hodge and Monawar were second and fourth respectively on the team for quadball stops last season, and fans can look forward to some big hits and fastbreaks from both players. Another key to Charlotte’s chaser game on both offense and defense is Madison Burns. Burns has fantastic positioning on offense and is not afraid to be physical on defense. Charlotte’s chasers love to force a fast break and once they get going they are very difficult to bring to the ground. In their last meeting, Boston was able to shut down passes behind their hoops, so the Aviators will need quick and more dynamic passes to create more scoring opportunities through the Forge defense.
On the topic of beaters, the most glaring absence on the Boston roster has to be Max Havlin, arguably THE franchise player for the Forge. While the other top beaters on the team in Kieran Collier, Leeanne Dillmann, and Lulu Xu can absolutely hang with and outplay most beater corps in the country, there's the question of how well the rest of the beaters, like Will Andrews, Andrew Bittles, and Serena Monteiro, who are either new to the team (or have historically seen less play on the team) will fare. While the Aviators are losing a valuable beater of their own in Perry Wang, Charlotte is returning much of last year's core with Celine Richard, Joe Goldberg, Tony Bonadio, and Kody LaBauve. The Aviators’ beater lines are strong with many experienced players and we expect that experience will show through the control of pace of play on the pitch.
Will Charlotte’s veterans be able to control the pitch and capitalize on Boston’s younger squad? When they have control, Charlotte’s beaters are a force on defense, but they have struggled to maintain that control against Boston in the past. Will Boston’s forced reliance on player’s with less MLQ experience bleed goals as some of their depth play their first series of the season? Will this factor give Charlotte the edge in the beater game- leading to an Aviators victory this time around? At the very least Charlotte’s chasers should be under much less beater pressure and be able to play at their own pace.
The Aviators will need to have solid half-courts with better ball movement, sharper passes, and cross-position communication on offense if they want to upset the reigning East Division champions. Last year, Boston’s high-beater press and Scura’s lockdown defense at the hoops resulted in errant passes from the Charlotte offense. If Charlotte locks down those passes, however, they will be a serious scoring threat against any opponent. On defense, Charlotte is a scrappy physical team who can suffocate an offense behind their hoops, but in their last meetings with Boston they struggled against midrange shots and were often unable to get back to stop Forge's fast breaks. Looking at stats alone, Boston is the favorite in this matchup but Charlotte certainly has the talent for some upsets.
In last season’s matchup, the chaser of the game was undoubtedly Ian Scura who came away with 10 goals and 11 assists. Many of Scura’s assists went to Zach Doyle, who has an unmatched ability to get up for lobs and finish the play with an effortless tap. The duo combined for a total of 22 goals on the day and if Charlotte doesn't find a way to stop them this time around, the series is likely to end the same way. The Aviators should look to limit Scura’s shooting however they can this weekend, whether they look at a hoops zone or try to keep a defender in his face and force the ball out of his hands. Forcing Boston’s offense to rely on any other player could be the key to control the pace- a key they’ll need to come away with the series win. Boston, of course, has no lack of stars that could take over the game if given the opportunity. Taylor Crawford, Harry Greenhouse, and Athena Mayor, all of US National Team pedigree, are more than capable of putting up consistent points against even the best defenders, and will undoubtedly feast if the Aviators overcommit their resources to denying Scura.
In the seeking game, the two teams are effectively equal with two world-class seekers in Ryan Davis for Charlotte, and Tyler Beckmann for Boston. The flag catch in this matchup is going to come down whoever gets the first couple looks at the flag runner because anyone who has played against either of these seekers knows that they will make you pay if you give them even a couple of seconds unopposed. If the games are close the winner could very well be decided by which team has dodgeball control at the end of regulation.
Prediction: Boston Forge 2-1
