Film Room: Beau Pederson and Asher Nolting’s Heavyweight Bout
By Zach Carey | Feb 14, 2025
Asher Nolting was the biggest, baddest dude at the 2024 Championship Series. He bullied smaller defenders, punishing defenses for letting him dodge one-on-one.
Size wins in the Champ Series. Nolting led the Cannons to a title last February, and the Chrome Lacrosse Club bullied its way to the inaugural Champ Series crown with the likes of Dyllan Molloy, Logan Wisnauskas and Cole Williams bruising their way through defenses in the process.
Nolting in particular is such a dominant force because of his ability to clean up one-on-one matchups and to exploit defenses who slide to him as one of the best feeders in the sport.
That has corresponded with defenses adopting the “Nolting Rules” which entail leaving Nolting entirely on an island with his one-on-one matchup and face guarding the other four defenders on the field. If Nolting can so easily get to his spots because of his brute force, why is that approach remotely efficient?
It’s a numbers game. In theory, forcing Nolting to shoot unassisted one-pointers instead of allowing him to hit his teammates for assisted shots (that could be twos) ensures lower quality looks. In practice, the “Nolting Rules” is easier explained than executed.
That’s because Nolting can muscle his way to the middle of the field and create dunks for himself on the crease. Leaving Nolting on an island and limiting his impact to what he can do in his individual matchup is fine and dandy until he bull dodges his way through any defender 200 pounds and lighter. That’s why he’s the leader in the clubhouse for the Golden Stick Award with a whopping 13 scoring points through two games.
Yet the Utah Archers might have the guy who can actually match Nolting one-versus-one and allow the “Nolting Rules” to be effective.
In the Archers’ eight-point win versus the Cannons on Wednesday night, Beau Pederson’s physicality in one-on-one scenarios with Nolting stood out.
Nolting notched eight points on 6-for-11 shooting. So, Utah hardly erased him from the matchup. Yet Pederson’s success in a small sample size was the best an individual defender has performed against Nolting in the Champ Series. He actually held Nolting scoreless as the point-of-attack matchup.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound defender held the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Nolting to 0-for-2 shooting and a pair of possessions that resulted in turnovers.
“We thought, coming in, that he was going to be a difference maker,” Utah head coach Chris Bates said postgame. “He's just a big, strong, agile athlete. So that was a heavyweight matchup between those two.”
Pederson and Nolting went at it first with three minutes left in the first quarter. Watch how Pederson managed to absorb Nolting’s jabs and respond in turn with a wrap check and then a crowbar which threw the Cannon off balance and, eventually, on the ground as the rookie stripped him.
An off-ball flag on Ryan Ambler blew the play dead. But Pederson’s bullying of the bully the first time the bell rang was impressive. That set the tone for the matchup as the game progressed.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Nolting went at Pederson from X and got a shot off. Yet he pulled it left because of Pederson’s subtle push at goal line extended. Giving Nolting enough of a shove to knock him offline is not something that happens everyday, and it’s a testament to Pederson’s lanky strength that he managed to do so.
Out of a timeout two minutes later, Nolting dodged at Pederson from behind the cage again. This time, Utah momentarily abandoned the “Nolting Rules” as Connor Maher hedged towards Nolting from the crease and his man, Ryan Drenner, faded to the back pipe. Pederson just got on Nolting’s hands, and Drenner couldn’t quite haul in the slightly high pass.
That’s an indication of just how dangerous Nolting is with even a moment of hesitation off-ball. His head is always up, surveying the defense. So sliding to him typically creates immediate offense.
The fourth and final of Nolting and Pederson’s jousts came in the final minute of the first half. Pederson aptly navigated a slipped screen from Marcus Holman before absorbing Nolting’s left shoulder and checking him through the roll dodge to force a nifty, but low-power one-handed shot. If he had hit that, Utah would’ve tipped its cap. That’s a shot the Archers will be happy to give up from nine yards.
The small sample size is worth reiterating. Nolting only truly dodged at Pederson four times on Wednesday night, instead opting to generate switches with smaller defenders like Maher or offensive players such as Mac O’Keefe and Ryan Aughavin. That’s a tell that Nolting and Boston recognize Pederson’s effectiveness and, instead of going at him relentlessly, they opted to change the matchup.
Should these two clubs face off again, the Archers should be more purposeful with how they play picks for Nolting. Realistically, switching between Pederson and anybody except Piper Bond and Mason Woodward creates a real mismatch. That’s harder to execute than it is to suggest, of course.
The Archers held Boston to 19 points in part because of their execution of the “Nolting Rules”. They limited twos, pressed out on the perimeter, and forced Nolting to score ones by himself.
In Friday night’s matchup against the New York Atlas, Utah will need to be similarly physical at the point of attack against thumpers like Molloy and Myles Jones. That’s where Pederson, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Bond and the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Woodward come in.
Off-ball, the Archers could find value in playing New York’s dodgers similar to how they played Nolting. Nobody can both dodge and feed like he can. But Xander Dickson’s threat as a cutter in space is such that helping off him typically ends in a dunk.
There’s no truly consistent way to shut down an offense in the Champ Series. But merely sustaining the punches from behemoths like Nolting, Molloy and Jones is all clubs can ask of their defenses.
Limiting twos and assisted shots is the name of the game. That’s why the “Nolting Rules” are catching on and, consequently, why a physical defensive force like Pederson could be the solution to limiting offense in this format.
