Fast Takes with Fast Break: Cleveland vs Rochester

Authors: Jack Moseley, Joe Lombardi, & Madeleine Fordham

PC: Major League Quidditch

This week’s highly anticipated North Division match-up pits the Rochester Whiteout against the hosting Cleveland Riff. Rochester is coming off a decisive series win over the Toronto Raiders while Cleveland is still waiting for their chance at redemption after being swept by the Raiders on opening day of the 2022 season. This match-up comes with massive stakes on the line, as the Rochester Whiteout can guarantee a first place seed in the North Division - Conference B, while the Cleveland Riff must sweep the series in order to have a chance at avoiding the last place seed in the conference.

The last time these two teams matched up was in 2018, when the Whiteout froze the Riff with a 3-0 series sweep. Like in 2018, this series looks to heavily favor Rochester on paper, but things may be closer than they first appear.  

This Cleveland homestand will provide a largely contrasting roster than the team that was swept by the Toronto Raiders only a few weeks ago. Unlike the season opening team that contained a shortened 16-player roster, the Riff will have a bolstered 21-player roster that will feature the 2022 debuts of veteran players Ben Strauss and Peter Brechting. This home series could not come at a better time as a 4 week recovery period from the Raiders series has provided ample time for the Riff to recover from their damaged squad that was forced down to a single keeper against the Raiders. With a healthy squad and the return of some of the Riff’s star players, this will be the strongest Cleveland Riff roster available for this series against Rochester.

Conversely, Rochester comes into this series with a few more question marks than they had against Toronto. Notably missing from the roster are two of the four keepers (Cody Keefer and Mike Pirrall) and two of the male beaters (Brady Grow and Josh Tombline) rostered against Toronto. Additionally beater Madeleine Fordham is present, but may be limited due to injury. To adjust to these losses we’ll see a few shake ups at the hoops (keeping Ashley Wilson in a green headband and rotating various chasers through the keeper position), a couple additions to the quaffle line (Sam Hauser and Zach Sobel-Pressman making their MLQ debuts), and a few moves in the beater lineup (moving Sollie Gominiak primarily to beater and adding Justin Barnard, Ashley Dolan, and Allan Yang to the roster for the first time this season).

The Cleveland Riff are expected to bring a similar defensive style as the Baylor-zone defense they displayed against the Toronto Raiders. As head coach Gabe Boris explained in our most recent interview, there were things he liked about their defensive posture in the series and the team is “hoping to build on (their) identity” that they have built to this point in the season. With the addition of more height and physicality in both the quaffle and bludger game, as well as more practice time and team chemistry, expect to see a much sharper and disciplined defense than the unsteady one we saw versus the Raiders. Boris also plans for the team to run a new-look offense against the Whiteout this weekend compared to the Raiders series. Up until this point, the Riff’s offense was a diamond-like formation that concentrated on the keeper being the play creator at the point. Commonly, the keeper would take space created by the beaters to shoot from distance before the keeper zone or the keeper would feed the deep off-ball chasers cutting to the back of one of the two outside hoops. While this had relatively low success against a high-pressing Raiders beater line and a mixed mark-cover defense, the Whiteout have played with a different style that runs a more strict 2-2 zone. Boris has planned the new-look offense around this 2-2 zone. With the new offensive plan in place, Boris expects the team to succeed if they remain highly efficient on their opportunities and avoid common mistakes with turnovers.

Rochester will hope to recreate some of Toronto’s success schematically in this series. Defensively, the Raiders gave Cleveland fits with their high pressing defense and aggressive beater play. Whiteout ran a similarly aggressive defense in their series against Toronto; expect them to once again mix in mark defenses and high pressing 2-2 zones. Whether Rochester is able to stifle Cleveland at the midline and create turnovers and fastbreaks, or Cleveland is able to beat the press and punish Rochester for their lack of experienced keepers could dictate how the series goes. Whiteout has the physicality and speed to get easy goals on fastbreaks but they’ll need to be able to score in the half-court if they want to win the series. Offensively Whiteout faces the challenge of breaking down the Riff’s Baylor Zone. To do so will take a similar approach to the one they used against Toronto: coming up in a box formation then working the ball around and behind the hoops. If Rochester’s chasers aren’t patient enough, settling for shots instead of passing and dunking, they’ll struggle to get anything going. 

Last series, Cleveland Riff beater Austin Howe and chaser Carrie Brittson were highlighted as key players to watch. Both players had mild success but the weekend was overshadowed by the Toronto Raiders dominance in the series. Expect these players to have a big comeback series this weekend. However, this week’s key players to watch are two veterans that have been previously mentioned in this article: Ben Strauss and Peter Brechting. Last year, Strauss was an absolute workhorse for the Riff’s beater unit, playing in more than a fourth of their shifts. Their beater play gives the Riff a chance to beat any team, and that talent was on full display in the team’s only win over the Minneapolis Monarchs last season. While the Riff proved that they can challenge teams without Strauss last year (notably in their 135-180 loss to League City), they are a massive asset that cannot be ignored in the Riff’s success. Peter Bretching is one of, if not, the most dynamic scoring player currently on the Riff roster. Last season, they contributed both the second-most goals and assists on the team, giving them the most points of any player on the year. With the departure of last season’s goals leader Harry Daniel and assists leader Matt Dwyer, expect Bretching to continue being a stat sheet stuffer in not just the goals and assists department, but in takeaways as well. The return of these critical players to the Riff roster make this team a force to be reckoned with come this Saturday.

Whiteout’s beaters are poised for a big series this Saturday. Cleveland struggled mightily against Toronto in the beater game and while the addition of Ben Strauss to the Riff’s roster makes them a tougher challenge, this phase of the game still figures to lean in Whiteout’s favor. Creating turnovers and never letting the Riff get comfortable offensively has to be the goal of these beaters. In particular the starting line of Patrick Callanan and Sollie Gominiak will want to blow things up early and often. Behind them are several quality pieces. Erin Parkinson played great in Whiteout’s first series against Toronto, Ashley Dolan comes in with years of experience with Boston, Justin Barnard (#MoreThanASnitch) also has years of experience (albeit at chaser), and Allan Yang should thrive in a smaller role where he can play off a more experienced partner. This lineup is largely new to Whiteout, but they have the potential to cause a lot of problems for the Riff.

The X-factor that will determine the Cleveland Riff’s success against the Rochester Whiteout this weekend is how often the quaffle can be in John Gaffigan’s hands. In a series that was dominated by the Raiders, Gaffigan shined as the core scorer and provider for the Riff. After coming off a one year MLQ hiatus, Gaffigan was forced to play entire portions of the series as injuries to alternative keepers David Profusek and Gabe Boris left Gaffigan as the sole keeper option for Cleveland. Despite the test in stamina, Gaffigan flexed their incredible arm strength by scoring several goals from all ranges. When shots weren’t available, Gaffigan’s pin-point passing  for deep off-ball chasers cutting to hoops proved essential for the team’s scoring threat on  offense. It’s clear that the Riff highly value Gaffigan’s versatile offensive talent, and if the team aspires to achieve their first series win since 2016, Gaffigan needs to be at the center of the action.

Whiteout’s players to watch this series are their young keepers and keeper substitutes: Mitch Brown, Joe Lombardi, Mitchell Vargas, and Ashley Wilson. Playing a zone defense should make the positional adjustment smoother, but against a Cleveland team that likes to take shots and make deep passes they’ll need to be at their best. Offensively, these chasers (as well as others like Emily Hickmott, media sweetheart Kit Powpour, and Ben Stonish) face the challenge of filling in for Cody Keefer. The goal isn’t just to replace his production (second on the team with 7 goals in Whiteout’s first series), but to retain the sense of control and physicality that he brings to the pitch. If these players can keep the shooting of John Gaffigan in check and keep the offense humming, this series is Rochester’s to lose.

Will the North Division - Conference B favorites, Rochester Whiteout, overcome a diminished roster to pick up the single win needed to clinch a 1st place seed or will they face the music from a stacked Cleveland Riff seeking their first series win in 6 years? Find out Saturday at 12 PM as the Cleveland Riff host the Rochester Whiteout.

Prediction: Rochester 3-0