Boston sweeps Washington in Week Three Quadball matchup previewed as East test

Boston turned a Week Three measuring-stick series into a statement, rolling past Washington 3-0 by scores of 175-70, 125-90 and 155-120 on June 20. The Forge finished the afternoon with 455 points to Washington's 280, a 175-point aggregate margin that made the pre-series debate about Boston's post-Havlin, post-Xu identity look settled fast.

MLQ had framed the matchup around which Boston pairing would replace the production of retired Max Havlin and Lulu Xu, and the community vote pointed to Cleo Brooks and Ryan Callaghan at 46.7 percent. Fiona Wisehart and Tom DeMouth drew 40 percent, while Alex Wicken and Ufuk Guner got 13.3 percent. Washington's side of the preview centered on Nathan Jun and Joey Beh, the duo picked as the weekend's top candidate for combined goals-plus-beater-stops production, with the series cast as an East Division test between two teams expected to matter in the bracket race.

Boston made that discussion look more like a forecast than a question. The Forge never really surrendered control in any of the three games, opening with a 105-point spread in the first match before Washington tightened things in the middle and final games. Even then, Boston still won the second game by 35 points and closed the sweep with another 35-point margin, showing enough depth to absorb runs without letting the series swing.

The result also underscored how much talent Boston still had on hand despite offseason change. The Forge roster includes Brooks, Callaghan, Wisehart, Thomas DeMouth, Alexander Wicken and Ufuk Guner, part of a lineup that also has to replace pieces from a women-beater rotation that once featured Lulu Xu, Erin McCrady, Leeanne Dillmann and Emily Hickmott. Washington's roster lists Jun, Beh, Shane McConaghie, Bryan Mulcahy and Julia Rankin, but the Admirals could not turn that core into enough scoring to keep pace over a full series.

The sweep came with the wider Boston pedigree attached. The Forge are one of MLQ's oldest and most successful franchises, having joined the league in its inaugural 2015 season, reaching five championship finals and winning the Benepe Cup in 2015, 2016 and 2019. Washington, based in the D.C. area and practicing in Fairfax, Va., had only just reached the MLQ Championship quarterfinals for the first time in program history in 2023, and Boston's performance in this series showed the gap between established power and still-developing contender remains real.