Fast Takes with Fast Break: Ottawa v Boston
Author: Savannah Campbell & Michael Li
PC: Major League Quadball
With the IQA World Cup just over a week away, any games this weekend will see a mix of National Team members either sharpening iron with iron or pursuing some R&R. The Ottawa Black Bears will be feeling the effects of the latter approach, fielding a comparatively shallow bench against the Boston Forge.
For the Forge, the keys to a successful series will probably involve patching up some of the holes they displayed in their season opener against Charlotte. While some of their established pieces in Taylor Crawford, Zach Doyle, and Ian Scura had no issues getting their looks, combining for a total of 30 goals and 24 assists, Boston will want to find a way to get more production out of their star female chaser Athena Mayor. Mayor, who has been extremely important to the team’s success in the post-pandemic era, barely recorded any touches a month ago against the Aviators, to little fault of her own. She primarily played on a line with Tyler Beckmann, Taylor Crawford, and Peter Lawrence, who were all looking to drive (with undeniable success) through the Charlotte defense rather than rely on a more patient motion oriented offense where Mayor has historically thrived as a cutter, midrange shooter, and secondary ball carrier. So the big question this weekend is how can the Forge adjust to get Mayor more involved? Mayor is simply too good of a player to be so underutilized, especially when the hardest of Boston’s season is still ahead of them.
In the beater game for Boston, while their established players in Leeanne Dillmann, Erin McCrady, and Lulu Xu played undeniably great games, and should get their due for the series sweep, the story of the series was a breakout game for Will Andrews in a nail biter of a game 1 that ended in a 160-155 Forge victory. The young player out of the University of Michigan and Boston Pandas programs had a relatively quiet rookie season last summer, but came out of the gates firing and, along with Crawford, was the X factor in securing Boston’s first win of the season. Andrews played confidently against the veteran beaters on Charlotte, and was able to plant himself in Charlotte’s keeper zone and tap out hoops defenders and create easy goals for his chasers. Andrews boasted the best “Average Dodgeballs” on the team at an impressive 1.88 putting him at 2nd in the entire league (for a player with at least 10 possessions played). With Max Havlin seemingly out for the bulk of the Forge season, Andrews stepping up is exactly what Boston needed to keep their division aspirations alive.
For the Ottawa Black Bears, Hailey Yhap proved pivotal at the East Super Series, earning a Top 20 spot league-wide for goals, and scoring a whopping nine of these in her stellar performance against the Charlotte Aviators. Ellie Kalutycz is in her defensive prime with a Top 10 performance in stops for the league. If there were ever a time for less experienced players to step up, this series is it. The absence of Ottawa’s longtime leadership translates to a team sorely missing their stabilizers and pace-setters, a gap we can trust that Boston will be quick to close in on.
There is plenty of discussion to be had around the plight of the Black Bears in the East; factors such as a) the attendance of a handful of players or b) near back-to-back series weekends would not be the difference between catalytic or cataclysmic performances for franchises with more experienced depth. This, in conjunction with a World Cup in our backyards, limits Ottawa’s opportunities for growth once again to the equivalent of being thrown in the deep end without a life jacket. Tea party, anybody?
This is not to say Ottawa will not be capable of bear-ing their fangs this weekend. MLQ rookie beater Zack Reiken has another current league-wide Top 10 stops, with Antoine Bourassa providing critical support on and off-ball chasing alongside a surplus of the Montreal contingent. There will be new faces on the pitch this weekend, and the Forge will be supplying a trial-by-fire for the up-and-coming Black Bears’ thick skin. With the untapped potential and incredible resilience demonstrated by this team time and again, there is little doubt these athletes will be fighting tooth and claw against the firmly established and dominant Boston team.
Prediction: 3-0 Boston