The D.C. Rollergirls “Lucky” Season Seven got off to a rollicking start on Saturday at the Armory as Mayor Gray blew the ceremonial whistle to launch proceedings. Sandwiched by a pair of hard-fought bouts, the afternoon’s half-time break featured the wedding of two DC Rollergirls, Hoova Dayum and Allbie Dayum’d, a fitting expression of the league’s slogan, “With Liberty and Justice To Brawl”.
Scare Force One 292 – 88 Majority Whips
By Special Correspondent, Lady Burn Johnson
The first bout of the night pitted last year’s champions, Scare Force One, against the Majority Whips, who finished Season 6 a disappointing fourth after being upset by the D.C. DemonCats at the season-ending bout in May. Both teams had a few roster changes over the summer: The Whips lost blockers Maria Malicia and Valcoholic Rage but picked up rookie standout Frightmare from the Cherry Blossom Bombshells. Scare Force, meanwhile, was down some key jammers–Brutal Noodle, Feral Streak and most notably Lenore Gore, who now plays solely for the DC All-Stars. But with a solid rotation of fearsome blockers still intact (including Soledad, Chinese Cheker, Velocityraptor and Condoleeza Slice), Scare Force had no troublehanding the Whips a solid 292-88 defeat.
At first, it looked as if the off-season roster changes might have turned the tide in the Whips’ favor—after a neck-and-neck 4-4 opening jam between Dual Hitizen and Marion Barrycuda, Frightmare got an early opportunity to boost the Whips’ score with a 17-point powerjam that put them on top at 21-4. Two jams later, ‘Cuda worked to even the score for Scare Force, picking up nine as Soledad repeatedly knocked Whips jammer Slam Grier to the floor. The Whips regained their footing, however, and over the next few jams, both teams demonstrated tight packwork that led to only incremental gains.
Scare Force got its next chance to chip into the Whips’ lead at around the 20-minute mark, when Soledad and Velocityraptor teamed up on Slam Grier, holding her in the pack to allow Marion Barrycuda to pick up 14 points, bringing the score to 32-35 in favor of the Whips. The ladies in green kept a tenuous hold on the lead for the next two jams, but lost it for good at the 15-minute mark, when Chinese Cheker netted 20 points on a powerjam, bringing the score to 56-39, Scare Force.
The Whips remained within striking distance, with both teams trading hit-and-quit jams, until Chinese Cheker gave Whips jammer Stabigail Adams enough trouble that she was forced to pass the star to Frightmare–but not until Scare Force jammer Sharp Shredder had racked up another 20 points, making the score 80-43, Scare Force. The Whips remained stuck in the 40s for another few jams, until an epic two-minute battle between Marion Barrycuda and Frightmare in which there was no lead jammer. ‘Cuda came out just ahead of the visibly tiring Frightmare, putting up 12-8 to make the score 99-54. The last few minutes of the half saw another 20-point powerjam for Scare Force–this time courtesy of transfer Acourta Pain, previously of Maryland’s Salisbury Rollergirls–and they went into halftime with a commanding 126-59 lead.
The start of the second half seemed to spell a comeback for the Whips, with Acourta Pain starting the first jam in the box and Dual Hitizen skating unopposed–but before she could complete her first scoring pass, Hitizen found herself in the box instead, and Scare Force used some deft offensive timing to balloon their lead to 150-61. For the first 10 minutes of the half, the Whips managed to keep the damage mostly under control, but they were eventually dogged by some critical penalties.
During a powerjam for Marion Barrycuda, Whips blockers rotated in and out of the penalty box—at one time, leaving Fierce Compredator as the sole blocker on the track—and ‘Cuda had no trouble picking up a whopping 35 points to make the score 193-67.
The Whips seemed stuck there for the next few jams, but finally got a chance for a powerjam of their own when Soledad, in one of her few turns with the jammer star, got sent to the penalty box, freeing Slam Grier to put up a 14-5 jam, bringing the score to 220-81 with around 13 minutes to go. A beautiful apex jump from Lois Slain two jams later succeeded in adding four more points to the Whips’ total to bring the score to 227-87, but that moment of victory was short-lived. Scare Force shut the Whips down almost completely for the remainder of the bout while padding their tally with a few more high-scoring powerjams (including a 14-0 for Deadly Lamarr and a 9-0 for Marion Barrycuda), ultimately finishing at 292-88.
Cherry Blossom Bombshells 154 – 102 D.C. DemonCats
By Special Correspondent, Spank Erin
The second bout of Saturday’s double header pitted the Cherry Blossom Bombshells against the D.C. DemonCats. Both teams were hungry for a win, with the Bombshells finishing second to Scare Force One in last season’s championship bout, and the DemonCats’ 1-6 Season 6 record still hanging over the team. Despite the Cats’ success in keeping the point differential relatively low throughout most of the bout, an almost 30-point jam from Yankee Scandal with only 10minutes left in the game exploded the Bombshells’ score and secured their lead with a 154-102 win.
The first jam got off to a bit of a slow start, with both teams standing at the jammer line and no movement at the first whistle. Despite the DemonCats immediately losing blocker Bruisehilda being to the penalty box, jammer Jersey Jill was able to take lead for a quick hit-and-quit pass, kicking things off at 3-0 for the ‘Cats. The Ultimate Whorrior quickly evened the score for the Bombshells in the next jam. The next few jams saw the DemonCats slowly eking out a small lead, but Bombshell jammer Bad Ass Maggie soon evened things up again to 7-7. With luck apparently on their side, the Bombshells widened the point gap 20-7 in the next jam thanks to two grand slams and then some from The Ultimate Whorrior.
Strong defense by DemonCat blockers Hoova Dayum, Bad Asset, Rachel MadHo and Ovary Action kept the Bombshells scoreless for the next two jams while Nina Ninja and Jersey Jill grabbed a few points to close the gap to 20-13. But then it was the Bombshells’ turn to keep the ‘Cats scoreless, with Artemis Conduct, Guantanamo Babe, Ridin’ Dirty, and recent Charm City transfer Mya Bloody Valentine walling up on the DemonCat jammers to allow The Ultimate Whorrior, Yankee Scandal and Jamminy Kricket to pad the lead to 36-13. With about 10 minutes left in the first half, the tide turned in the DemonCats’ favor when a penalty on The Ultimate Whorrior gave Jersey Jill license to score 14 unanswered points, ending the jam at 45-27. Over the rest of the first period, the ‘Cats were able to keep pace, rounding out the half with a score of 68-42, Bombshells.
The first 10 minutes of the second half saw the continuation of the low-scoring first period, with both teams only making small point gains each jam. For three jams, the score stayed static at 81-62, with both team’s jammers racing each other to their second pass but unable to earn any points. Both teams continued making small steps forward, bringing the score to 87-66 with a little under 15 minutes left in play.
Bombshell jammer Yankee Scandal changed all that in the next pivotal jam. With a rash of DemonCat penalties leaving jammer Mini Vandal in the box and Bat Cat as the only blocker on the track for a time, Scandal was able to capitalize on the powerjam to earn 25 unanswered points, blasting the score to 112-66. Starting off unopposed in the following jam, newcomer Jaminy Kricket increased the gap with 19 more points, to 131-66.
With the last nine minutes of the period extremely penalty-heavy for both teams, DemonCat Nina Ninja was able to make up some ground on a 15-point power jam, bringing the score to 131-81. But the ‘Cats were never quite able to claw their way out of the deficit, with the Bombshells holding them scoreless for four of the last eight jams as they continued to add to their lead. A last burst of energy by Jersey Jill and Nina Ninja added 14 more points to the DemonCats’ score, but with 15 seconds left in the game, blocker-turned-jammer Scarlet O’Snap retaliated with 11 points of her own, closing the bout with a 154-102 victory for the Bombshells.
The next bout won’t feature Mayor Gray, nor will it be in D.C. proper, but it’s sure to be action-packed derby fun as the Cherry Blossom Bombshells take on Scare Force One followed by the Majority Whips vs. the DC DemonCats. All the excitement takes place at the Dulles Sportsplex at the slightly earlier time of 3pm, Saturday November 17. More details at the DC Rollergirls website.
