Fast Takes with Fast Break: New Orleans vs League City
PC: Major League Quidditch
Last year League City swept New Orleans and in the process, clinched their bid into champs. This year the stakes are the same. The matchup’s winner will likely be the fourth team coming out of the South Division for a chance at the Benepe Cup. One team returns nearly everyone from last year’s roster, while the other is looking to shape up a young squad that will only get better as the summer goes on.
League City is coming off of a series sweep against the Austin Outlaws and let up 200 or more quaffle points in two out of the three games. And while the first series was a tough watch for League City followers, it was filled with learning moments for many players, and was the right matchup before this potential championship bid deciding series. League City has the weaker beater resume going into this weekend but showed that they know how to play up to the competition in ways that help the team. Distracting the opposing beaters just enough gave them great looks on offense against the Outlaws a number of times, and they’ll be looking to turn those into multiple goals against Curse. I don’t think anyone’s relished going up against Sarah Kneiling, Josh Mansfield, or Michael Sanders at beater, and having four beaters for three hours in high heat isn’t a setting I would choose to try. Legends only have four beaters on the weekend, so Head Coach Ashton Jeanlewis will need to develop extreme strategies if he hopes to supplant the dominance these beaters have been displaying for the past seven years. The Legends may rely on the spirit and heart of their young Southwest beaters, and Kyle Easter, Conner Mason, and Caleb Williams have that in spades. If they can tap into the potential they showed last weekend and Easter and Mason’s D2 run at nationals, they can open up lanes for goals and make the right beats on defense to keep their team ahead.
In the chaser game, Jeanlewis has grown the Legends from a seemingly unconnected group into an MLQ team. Against the Outlaws, the team consistently held a vision on offense and looked for great scoring opportunities. If they can capitalize on their offensive strategy and keep their chemistry up, they’ll be able to score at a consistent pace to hold their lead if up, or keep in range if not.
New Orleans is coming off of an 0-3 performance against San Antonio that started off strong but, due to a mixture of heat and roster depth, fizzled out. Game one was the closest of the three matchups; a large part of this was the play of Joshua Mansfield and Sarah Kneiling. Their ability to equalize the playing field made it so that the Soldados were not able to put up points efficiently when Miguel Esparza was not on the field. However, the standout performers were Shelby Cascio (#9) and Veronica Spicer (#3) - both of them, with excellent shots and great positioning, were productive when given the chance. The offense in particular, looked the best and most free-flowing when Spicer was ball-carrying and creating openings for her teammates. This held true about the entire offense - it was at its best when more chasers got involved. Often, with the size and strength that PJ Mitchell (#42) provides, he was the offense at points. However, this creates unnecessary pressure for him to shoulder the responsibility of setting up the offense to score efficiently. His ability to not go down is one of his biggest strengths, and it could be a fun variation for this offense if he was an off-ball chaser who could replicate the JC Arencibia role that worked so well for the Titans last summer. This would allow Spicer and Cascio to get more involved in the offense and allow Mitchell to bully rotations that have to shift over to cover him behind the hoops.
New Orleans has shown that they can hold their own against any team, and unlike last weekend where they only had 16 players in the reported 108-degree Texas heat, the ability for them to stretch the depth with a full 21 could allow Curse to hold momentum going into games two and three. The matchup against League City this weekend should see a Curse team that can outmatch the Legends with the aforementioned Mansfield and Kneiling combo, however, Alex Pucciarelli (#74) showed glimpses of becoming the go-to beater for the second line, and the addition of Sarah Yanofsky at beater for this weekend should help with beater depth.
There are still question marks in the set quaffle offense that Curse runs but with it only being the second week of the season, the potential this team has should make them a tough out for the rest of the summer. They should have the beater advantage this weekend with the Legends only rostering four male beaters, which limits the different variations they can throw onto the field.
The largest question mark of the series will be which seeker the teams choose to throw at the snitch. With 4 male beaters rostered for Legends, a male seeker could overtax the other chasers on their team in the 90+ degree heat. If the snitch on pitch lasts a while, they’ll be looking to make a quick catch to keep up the pace of play of their female players. On Curse’s end, not only do they have home turf advantage in the heat, they’ve got multiple body types to throw at the snitch in Eric Jurgeson, Drew Stroud, and Sarah Yanofsky. With three rostered seekers for this series, they’ll always have fresh legs to throw at a rapidly tiring snitch to clinch 35 points every time.
The key to winning for both of these teams will be controlling the pace of play. Against the Outlaws, the Legends were hurt by fast breaks and an inability to control beater battles. On defense, stopping 1v1s and fast breaks was a large weakness. They learned against the Outlaws, and if they can keep their beaters honed in on quaffle defense and set up defenses to avoid transition fast breaks by Curse, they can underdog their way to victory. Curse was unable to hold bludger control for long against the Soldados and got stuck trying to beat and set up a defense as their opponents were transitioning to a goal. Having learned against the quick legs of Miguel Esparza, Curse will be trying to stop any and all transition offenses this weekend, and will be looking to shut down even the Legends’ speediest chasers in Hayden Boyes and Perry Walton.
One thing’s for sure, ROCvTOR isn’t the series of the week in our eyes, because this face off will be the biggest deciding factor of who makes MLQ Championships and who doesn’t.
New Orleans: 2-1
