Fast Takes with FastBreak: San Antonio vs Kansas City
By: Brandon Borges and Whitney Ho
Major League Quadball’s regular season ends with a series that has never failed to deliver high-octane offense and athleticism, as the Kansas City Stampede travel to Texas to face the defending MLQ Champions, the San Antonio Soldados. The Stampede beat the Houston Legends earlier this season. That means that Kansas City, despite sliding one spot in the FastBreak News Rankings and relinquishing its No. 1 spot to the New York Titans, remains the highest-ranked Central Conference team.
The Stampede have their work cut out for them, however. Since the Soldados’ founding in 2019, Kansas City has yet to take a game off San Antonio outside of the Cattledome. Furthermore, while the Soldados did suffer a single loss to the Legends earlier this season, they remain the fourth-ranked team in the league according to our poll. With every other Central Conference team having completed its regular season, this series will determine the final Frontier Division standings.
Which of these powerhouses will earn a matchup with the top team in the Lakes Division, the Chicago Prowl, for a chance to claim the No. 1 seed in the Central Conference? Fast Break News takes a look at what could be the most competitive series of the season.
A Tale of Two Offenses
The Stampede did a decent job holding the Legends offense, one capable of scoring in bunches, to a dull roar in Week Three, limiting Houston to just over 100 points per game. However, San Antonio’s calling card throughout its years in the league has been a scintillating offensive attack that puts opposing teams on the back foot every game. That identity remains this season, but the Soldados attack quite differently depending on who is carrying the ball. To defend them effectively, Kansas City will need to recognize which version it is facing and adjust accordingly.
One style of San Antonio’s attack emerges when Hayden Boyes acts as the primary ball-carrier. Boyes, an elite passer, is often paired with dangerous off-ball threats, including last year’s Division MVP David Avila and last year’s Rookie of the Year Izzy Ramirez. With these three players on the pitch, the offense is free-flowing and pass-heavy, replete with field-flipping passes that test the awareness and reaction speed of hoop defenders. Boyes combines pinpoint shooting with the lateral quickness to beat point defenders, and if the ball finds its way back to him after a series of passes, he is quick to capitalize before the defense can recover.
Lauren Smith and Vincent Reyes made several key blocks on Houston shots created through a similar style of attack, thanks to their elite speed and timing on the hoops. Repeating that performance will be a much more difficult task this series, however, as roster constraints leave Smith and Bitzy Archibold as the only two full-time female chasers on the Stampede roster. Keighlyn Johnson also turned heads earlier this season as a highly capable chaser who can step in when needed. However, with Purvi Mujumdar and Tayler Wiederhold serving as the only other listed female beaters, Johnson's versatility may be needed at either position to help Kansas City balance its minutes.
Keeping up with San Antonio’s passing attack will be most difficult at the beginning and end of the series: Game One demands instant recognition of where the Soldados want to work the ball, while fatigue in Game Three can make tracking their constant movement increasingly difficult. Kansas City must disrupt possessions early, forcing Boyes and company to slow the tempo and contend with the Stampede’s point defenders and free beaters.
The other style of the Soldados offense is headlined by the man with the most recorded goals in MLQ history, Miguel Esparza. To watch Esparza work on a defense is to watch a master at his craft, as the veteran is surgical in his movements, positioning defenders until he sees an opening before firing off perhaps the most accurate running shot in the league. If the defense overcommits to Esparza, it only plays into his hands, as he can either attack the opening himself or move the ball to quick finishers like Allysa Villalba for an assist. Hoop defenders, while still important, are somewhat more vulnerable in this system, as quick hammer beats can force rotations that create the openings Esparza loves to exploit.
That places responsibility on the Kansas City beaters to eliminate those hammer beats before pressuring Esparza and forcing the ball out of his hands. Derek Dearking excelled earlier this season by quickly removing opposing beaters before attacking the ball carrier., Dearking may not be rostered for this series, but the blueprint of his game will pay dividends if followed by the available beaters for the Stampedeand the Stampede will need a similar performance here. Repeating that against San Antonio will not be easy, however. Esparza’s minutes often overlap with veteran beaters Kristopher De La Fuente and Baldemar Nunez. These two players are difficult to surprise and adept at punishing aggressive engage beaters by staying composed and exploiting their blind spots. TDearking, along with the rest of the Stampede engage beaters, will need to find a way to neutralize De La Fuente and Nunez if Kansas City hopes to limit Esparza.
In set offenses, as described, the Soldados alter their style depending on the personnel on the field. In transition, however, they all share one directive: run quickly, score if possible and pass when necessary. Whoever initiates a break knows exactly where their teammates will be and can deliver passes in their direction sometimes without even looking. It is chemistry forged during last year’s championship run, and it can turn a close game into a blowout if the opposing team fails to account for San Antonio’s relentless desire to push the pace.
Without the advantages of home field and a rested roster, Kansas City must pick its moments carefully. Early turnovers and ill-advised heat-check shots will only fuel the Soldados’ transition attack. If transition opportunities present themselves, the Stampede should take them, as that is when Kansas City is at its best. Otherwise, they will likely need to slow the pace and attack San Antonio’s set defense through patient ball movement, efficient shooting and hard dunks rather than feeding directly into the Soldados’ fast-break offense.
Take the Bulls by the Horns
San Antonio’s offense proved earlier this season that it can still score at will with its top lines, and the Soldados currently lead the league in Quadball Points Per Game at 160. Their defense, however, sits below league average. Part of that stems from their only data coming against a powerful Houston offense. Unfortunately for the Soldados, the Stampede have been even more offensively productive than the Legends, scoring an average of 140 quadball points per game to Houston’s 115. For San Antonio to win this series, they will need to slow down the elements of Kansas City’s attack that make it so dangerous.
The Stampede’s greatest advantage is an elite, deep beater rotation featuring players with vastly different skill sets. From the speed of Chanun Ong and Addi Himmelman, to the methodical pace of Lauren Curry and Ryan Cleary, to the long-range snipes of Dearking, Kansas City can constantly field fresh and varied beaters that are difficult to prepare for. The Soldados have two outstanding pairs of their own. De La Fuente and Nunez can stay on the pitch for extended stretches thanks to their patient style, while Sohum Sharma and Ella Jordan can accelerate the pace and overwhelm unprepared offenses. The challenge is that Kansas City's depth allows it to keep fresh beaters on the field, meaning Sharma, Jordan, De La Fuente and Nunez will likely be asked to shoulder heavy workloads throughout the series, just as they did against Houston. If the Stampede beaters are allowed to dictate play, they can quickly create offensive opportunities and ignite fast breaks.
The Stampede’s greatest advantage in their last series was an elite, deep beater rotation featuring players with vastly different skill sets. That advantage will be blunted somewhat this series, as Kansas City has only six beaters listed on its roster. Still, the beaters who are available are among the best in quadball. From the speed of Chanun Ong, to the methodical, intelligent play of Ryan Cleary and Mujumdar, to the physical style of Justin Dewick and Johnson, the Stampede can field a variety of beaters that are difficult to prepare for.
De La Fuente and Sohum Sharma both had strong series earlier this season and will be relied upon to play heavy minutes in order to match Kansas City's talent. However, if there is one Soldado who will be critical to the success of the beater game, it is Baldemar Nunez. Nunez owns the highest recorded drive count in MLQ history, having been on the field for a staggering 770 drives across 42 games. Julia Picasso is available to shoulder some of the workload, but Nunez's endurance is unmatched. Late in the second game and throughout the third, expect them to continue operating at a level that will be difficult to match.
Outside of the beater battle, the Soldados must also slow Kansas City’s driving threats. Ryan Mehio, Riley Usami, Jackson Herdade and Vincent Reyes are all difficult one-on-one covers, and San Antonio struggled earlier this season to contain drivers without help from its anchor beater.
To counter that, the Soldados need to play a more physical brand of point defense. Too often against Houston, their defenders reached to strip the quadball rather than wrapping up ball-carriers and stopping their momentum. That approach worked better last season, when San Antonio's explosive offense regularly forced opponents into rushed decisions and the team's deeper roster could relentlessly hunt interceptions before turning them into fast breaks. This year's roster has relied more heavily on its top lines, making efficient defensive possessions even more important. When the Soldados point defenders get in front of Kansas City's drivers, they need to finish the play with strong tackles rather than allowing those drivers to power through for dunks.
Prediction: San Antonio 2-1
Fittingly, as MLQ’s final regular-season action, this series is an absolutely brutal one to predict, and no result would come as a shock aside from a blowout sweep by either team. Each squad carries small advantages that could tip the scales in any of the three games. The Soldados bring championship pedigree, experience, cleaner passing, and home-field advantage. Meanwhile, the Stampede carry stronger hoop defense, greater athleticism, a dangerous seeker in Henry Hamilton, and an undefeated record against the Legends. Considering all of those factors, the slightest of edges goes to San Antonio for a few reasons.
As stated previously, Kansas City has never beaten the Soldados outside of the Cattledome, and without a complete roster, the degree of difficulty is even higher. Both teams thrive in fast-paced games, but San Antonio has shown more chemistry in transition, something reflected in the efficiency of each team's fast breaks this season. The biggest reason the Soldados should be favored, however, lies ironically in the beater game, where Kansas City normally holds the advantage. Nunez and De La Fuente are capable of sustaining effective 10 to 12-minute beater shifts, while the Stampede's typically deep rotation will not be available for this series. Kansas City may be able to play high-octane beater minutes early in the day, but as the series wears on, endurance will become increasingly important, and San Antonio has the more proven corps in that regard.
That said, this is a prime opportunity for the Stampede to demonstrate how close they are to championship contention. A series loss should not significantly hurt them unless it comes by way of a blowout sweep, as a Central Conference Championship much closer to home in St. Louis would still put Kansas City in position for a favorable seed at MLQ Championships. A series win, meanwhile, would be enormous. Defeating San Antonio on its home pitch would signal a shift in the league's balance of power and establish the rising Stampede as perhaps the leading contender for the first MLQ Championship in franchise history.
