NERC Rematch: Quidditch Club Boston, Rochester United Clash for a National Championship

Credit: Matt Dwyer

After dominant performances over Southwest Regional Champion Lone Star Quidditch Club and West Regional Champion Los Angeles Gambits at the Bat City Classic in January, Quidditch Club Boston was seen in the eyes of many as the inevitable US Quidditch Cup 9 champion.

Entering Saturday morning, it was expected that Boston, Lone Star and three-time defending champion University of Texas would surely run through their pools handily and secure nearly maximum positive point differentials and thereby get three of the top four bracket seeds. All three did just that, with Great Lakes Regional Champion University of Michigan taking the fourth seed. Of these teams, only two made the Final Four: Boston and Lone Star. The two teams met in the second semifinal game. It was a hard-hitting, high-paced showdown in which Boston emerged victorious with a final score of 90*-80.

While that half of the bracket shook out mostly as expected, the other side had shocking results. The overall top seed, Texas, lost in the Sweet 16 to Ball State University 90*-50 and the fourth-seeded Michigan lost in the first round to The Warriors 110*-80 in a spiritual rematch of the NYDC Capitalists’ last game ever at World Cup VII. These two upsets paved the way for the unpredictable finals run made by the fifth-seed Rochester United.

Having mercilessly fought their way through a theoretical pool of death on Saturday, United proceeded to beat the University of Miami, Penn State University, Gambits and Ball State on their way to the national championship game. Over the course of the weekend they were yet to concede a single snitch catch and would continue that trend through the final.

On Nov. 1 2015, United and Boston first met in the Northeast Regional Championship final. While the game was even for the first two thirds, Boston slowly pulled out of range and won 130*-40 on a snitch catch by Harry Greenhouse. Entering Sunday’s final, a repeat seemed inevitable after Boston’s stellar performance in their semifinal match against Lone Star. However, with explosive quaffle play and an extremely dynamic two-male beater set, United was able to keep the game in range and send it to overtime tied at 100 with a snitch catch by rookie seeker Cody Keefer.

In overtime, Boston was forced to gamble on their trust in Harry Greenhouse, electing to score an own goal to negate his time in the penalty area for a yellow card, in turn, granting United a lead in quaffle points. Boston then flexed their beating strength simultaneously defending the snitch and creating offensive driving lanes, opening up a 10-point lead with thirty seconds left in overtime on a monstrous dunk from captain and Team USA keeper Jayke Archibald. This effort proved to be enough as the score (140-130*) held and Boston emerged as the first community team to win a the national title.

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