NERC Primer Countdown Part 2
THE DARK HORSE
#4. Emerson College
Even before this last weekend, I’ve thought this is the best team outside the top 3, and it’s not just because I’m a homer. Yes, they’ve definitely taken a big step back from last year in terms of talent, depth, and scheme. Who wouldn’t after graduating or losing almost half of their roster? Their House League has allowed them to develop talent quickly but there are other issues aside from experience.
Emerson’s offense has always been sloppy for an elite team, but has looked dangerously one-dimensional this season. In two games against Harvard, 21 of their 29 goals were unassisted, an astounding 72% (per my footage). Granted, those were their first games of the season, but it reveals their dependence on their stars. There is a lack of cohesion between their quaffle players, even ones who played together last season. Lyle Thomes adds a much-needed dose of shooting and passing, but he’s only one guy. ECQ relies on their beaters to open up lanes for them and even then David’s not the no-bludger-sure-thing he used to be.
Defensively, Emerson still plays their zone but it’s lost a bit of its zest. People like to say that this is where they miss their beaters, but it’s more about the shell of chasers around them that’s different. The defense is designed to funnel the quaffle into big tacklers by the hoops and they lost half of those guys. Luckily, the biggest and baddest defender of that group, Fox, remains a beast on defense. While he may be overrated on offense, he is severely underrated defensively and at least once a game he just obliterates some poor chaser.
Emerson has experimented with putting him at the point and it has had mixed results. He has been effective at forcing passes and not letting drives past him, but his lack of size at the hoops has been felt. Playing against the better passing teams like QCB and NYU could also expose their weakness at the corners and the more their beaters get stretched out, the worse off they’ll be.
I sound critical of a team I just named to be fourth, but this is a team trying to put together their pieces, and the pieces are there. Being worse than last season does not make them irrelevant and rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated. Everybody looks to their losses, but they’ve been promising scorelines: 80*-60 loss to RIT, 110*^-70 loss to NYU, and a 80*-70 loss to Hofstra. Now they’ve played Tufts equal through two games, snagging one 80*-70 and losing the next 130*-100 with only 12 players. That puts them squarely in a tier by themselves.
These are all games they were winning and this is a team that was hot-and-cold seeking last season. If they get hot in regionals, it looks like they can hang with anyone (although they haven’t played QCB).
They haven’t even gotten all of their best players together for games yet. Maggie Noren gives a solid catch-and-release player with some playmaking chops and pairing her with Thomes, Fox, and Hines on a line is as good as any in the region. A line with the fastest chaser in the Northeast:
and a guy who can do this:
will just be unfair with Thomes and Noren surrounding them with passing and shooting.
The beating has been advertised as much-diminished, but Leeanne Dillman and Austin Mohn have proven themselves so far. These two are really good and work great together, and they have the physical John General and Todd Mitchell behind them to mix things up with big hits. Emerson might not be as technically smart or deep as they were last year, but they might just boast the most physical beaters in the Northeast. There’s still room to improve around the snitch but they’re already very solid otherwise.
They’re not experienced enough to be consistent yet, but this team is still frisky enough to make a run and going to be a tough out for anyone.