Fast Takes with Fast Break: North Super Series - Detroit
Author: David Banas
PC: MLQ
Cleveland
The Riff and Innovators enter this late season contest on two very different trajectories. Detroit lost a hard-fought split series to the Chicago Prowl before rebounding nicely to sweep the Toronto Raiders for a 4-2 overall standing. Cleveland on the other hand is coming into the Toledo Derby on a 0-6 skid with none of their six games against Toronto and Chicago being close. Historically, Detroit has had the edge over the Riff in their rivalry series, at one point rattling off 15 straight wins against the 216. All that came to a screeching halt last year at North Champs when the Riff stole the first game of their three-game series against Detroit with a combination of skill, luck, and poor line management on the Innovators’ part. Indeed, Riff even pushed the Motor City side to golden goal in game three before a push shot from HC Kaegan Maddelein won the series for Detroit and assured his place in the pantheon of Detroit heroes.
Cleveland is bringing one less player to the North SuperSeries (18) than they did for their last outing, a Fourth of July bout at home against the presumed North Division Champs Chicago Prowl.[1] There is, however, quite a bit of turnover between the two rosters. Cleveland gets back a good chunk of their beating corps in Aaron Oehler, Rob Beaton, Rae Barnes, and Claire Shuey. This bodes well for the Riff as it will not only give Cleveland big man Pete Brechting a competent cast to beat with if he dons the black but also the freedom to go back into the chasing game, a role he has assumed over the past two seasons for both the Riff and the USQ Ohio Apollos.
Kaegan Maddelein makes six changes to the Motor City side that beat Toronto three weeks prior. Rob Butler, Jack Levy, Kaegan Maddelein, Amanda Margolis, Sarah Maxey, and Neil Peterson drop to the bench/to coach/are unavailable and in their places are Brian Flahie, Ashton Glenn, Riley Hodder, Jenny Sun, Jackson Massey, and Sarah “Smalls” Multer. Massey and Multer, both rookies, are making their debut this season.
While some might be tempted to say that this series between the Riff and Innovators will be close like last year, in all likelihood it will not. Not only do the Riff bring a shorter roster, but they also lack numerous key pieces this season from that upset victory in Korey Johnson, Sam Beeler, Gabe Boris, Kyle Dawson, and Melinda Staup (all retired from MLQ play). This lack of talent does not mean that Cleveland can’t pull out a win, a win that might not be one in the traditional sense. The Riff can play spoiler to the Innovators’ hopes of finishing second in the division by forcing Detroit to keep key talent, especially beating talent, in against them before Detroit plays the Minneapolis Monarchs in the series. While nothing beats winning against one’s derby rivals, playing spoiler and forcing the Innovators through the grueling play-in bracket at MLQ champs might just be a good enough consolation prize this season. For Detroit, they must find ways to maximize their depth in this series so that their starters can save themselves for the grueling task of insect extermination against the Monarchs. To this end, the Innovators rookies will play a key role against Cleveland. Look to Brady Sowers, Sarah Multer, Katlyn Knudsen, Jackson Massey, Ryder Fried, Ashton Glen, and Maks Sviridov to earn their Innovator stripes this weekend in their first ever derby.
Prediction: This weekend will be the day that the music died as Cleveland goes winless for the first time in two years. Detroit 3-0
Minneapolis
An industrial revolution. An unclear royal succession. Turmoil and unrest. While these phrases might describe the current British social and political landscape, it’s actually just the state of this year’s Detroit-Minneapolis series. The Innovators (4-2) and the Monarchs (0-3) come in on different paths with this series promising, or threatening, to change those trajectories. The Monarchs’ one outing this season against the Chicago Prowl was, at times, painful to watch despite it being the series of the week with Prowl dominating virtually every aspect of the game. Prowl’s performance was so dominating that after the last whistle in game 3, Prowl beater Mike Mrowiec mimed a broom motion on the livestream, signifying Prowl’s supremacy. Detroit is coming off a sweep of the Toronto Raiders, a team that they needed to beat to not only keep their hopes of a second place finish alive but also to show that the win against Chicago wasn’t just because of roster absences and weather. Despite all this buildup, the history between these two teams has been dominated by the Monarchs. Of the twelve games between the Innovators and Monarchs, the Motor City side has won just one singular game: game 2 of the Monarchs inaugural season when former Innovator stalwart Chris Barnard put the team on his back and carried Detroit (and a few Minneapolis defenders) to a victory.
After starting the season off at home, Minneapolis begins their grueling summer of travel with the SuperSeries in Detroit made all the harder by a shortened roster with the PolliNation bringing only 19 athletes to play 6 games. On top of not having a full 21, the Monarchs are sorely missing key players: Max Meier, Nicole Nelson, Terry Carlson, and Emma Persons. For the Monarchs, one of the strategic hurdles they will have to overcome is how they manage beater pairings without Nelson and it would not be surprising if we see Meredith McDowell and Nadja Melby play heavy minutes with Cody Narveson, Ben Schlueter, and Nathan Podolsky doing more of the sprinting to preserve McDowell and Melby’s stamina. In the chasing game, against Chicago, six players scored for Minneapolis. Only 2 of them—Joe Goulet and Ben Zimet—are rostered for the SuperSeries and they scored 3 of the total 17 goals.
For the Innovators, there are two potential routes for a win during SOP: playing a slower game and gambling it on a flag catch or trying to run up the quadball score due to the absences in the Monarchs chaser corps. For Minneapolis, this series is all about beating and flag catches. For a team that made waves at last year's MLQ Championship off seeker Mike Devine’s quick, strong, assured grabs—just ask the Boston Forge—they went 0-3 against Chicago. This must change if the Monarchs want to do better than a split series against the Innovators. Goulet and Devine can be electric at seeker, provided they can get one-on-one time with the flag runner, something that Toronto’s beaters were able to create against the USNTDA pairing of Ryan Hsu and Rei Brodeur.
For Detroit, how they manage depth in both the Cleveland series and how much their depth can hold pace with the former rulers of the division will be the key to victory.
Prediction: Detroit busts out the DDT, hosing down the Monarchs en route to a 3-0 sweep.
[1] Chicago needs only one win against the Toronto Raiders to seal the division, a situation more likely than not as the Raiders must travel to Chicago.
