Charm City Bout Recap: Junkyard Dolls 67, Mobtown Mods 54
Posted by Justice Feelgood Marshall on October 16th, 2007
In the third-place bout for Charm City’s 2007 season, the Junkyard Dolls had to fight off a determined second-half challenge from the Mobtown Mods to emerge victorious, 67-54. The Mods came into this bout filling out their roster with two guest skaters from Harrisburg Area Roller Derby, Nash Villain and Rainbow’s Revenge, and the bout also featured the skating return of Mods captain Road Rash Rivers, back on skates after giving birth to her second child in September. The Mods were once again missing Holly Go Hardly, though, who had tough luck with injuries all season long.
The Junkyard Dolls kicked off the match with what has become their signature leadoff jammer, Coach Ballbricker, dropping a a 3-0 jam on the Mods’ Duchess of Torque. After a 4-4 tie between the Dolls’ Cherrylicious and the Mods’ Ang Thrax, the Mods’ Lady Quebeaum tied the game up at 8 with a 4-1 jam over Ali Kaida, as Ali went to the box in trying to get around some tough defense from Mods blockers Major Threat and Duchess of Torque. However, the Mods were then once again bedeviled by their recurring first-half woes, going scoreless for the next five jams while the Dolls got lead jammer each time, rolling up 17 unanswered points to establish a 25-8 lead. With only about 4 minutes left in the half, the Dolls were up 31-11 and it looked like they might put the game out of reach by halftime, but the Mods managed to finish the half strong. Two 4-0 jams, one for Rainbow’s Revenge over Killer Kitten and the second for Lady Quebeaum over Mistress May Eye made the score Dolls 31, Mods 19 going into the half.
Coach Ballbricker once again got the job done for the Dolls as the leadoff jammer in the second half, taking advantage of her blockers Shevil Knievel, Dirty Trixie and Radar Love doing a number on Ang Thrax to set up a quick 5-0 grand slam. However, after the Mods’ Duchess of Torque put up 6 points to Cherrylicious’ 2, it was the Dolls’ turn to go cold under a combination of injury and penalty trouble. In the half’s chaotic Jam 4, Killer Kitten was jamming for the Dolls when she took an extremely hard fall but was able to roll off the track to safety, and deciding that she wouldn’t be able to return to the jam, removed her helmet cover and threw it onto the track in an illegal star pass — a pass that resulted in a flurry of penalties as Dolls blockers Scheisty McFeisty, Hurtsula and Ali Kaida all passed around the star before finally getting it to pivot Cherrylicious, who ended up going straight to the box upon placing it on her head. During this time, the Mods’ Nash Villain had run up 8 points, narrowing the gap to Dolls 40, Mods 33. The Mods had a chance to get closer with Cherrylicious starting the next jam in the box and Roxy Toxic at the jammer line unopposed, but the jam ended up being a festival of defense, going the full 2 minutes with neither jammer able to break through the pack even once — highlighted by Doll Shevil Knievel sending Roxy into the audience with a huge hit. But the Mods would get tantalizingly close to a lead on the next jam, where Dolly Rocket, jamming for the Dolls, picked up a fourth minor on a cutting-track penalty, giving Duchess of Torque the opportunity to get a 5-0 that made the score Dolls 40, Mods 38 with about 10 minutes to go in the bout.
Mobtown Mods guest skater Rainbow’s Revenge tries to burst past the Junkyard Dolls’ Cherrylicious. Photo credit: epmd_derby
Dolly Rocket hadn’t been very happy about going to the penalty box in that jam, though, and took it out on the Mods on the following jam, lapping Nash Villain twice in the course of going 12-4 in a full two-minute jam, giving the Dolls some more breathing room at 52-42. Nash Villain went to the box on that jam, but still managed to claim lead jammer on the next one, pulling 3 points and calling off the jam before the Dolls’ Cherrylicious could add anything for the Dolls. With about six minutes left to play, it was Dolls 52, Mods 45, but the Mods’ fans hopes for a season-ending comeback victory would dissipate on the next two jams. First, in a full two-minute jam, both the Dolls’ Dirty Trixie and the Mods’ Duchess of Torque had some trouble catching up to the pack after a brutal first pass, but Trixie managed to emerge victorious with a 3-0. More importantly, though, Duchess picked up a fourth cutting-track minor at the very end of that jam, leaving the Mods jammerless with a 10 point deficit, 4 minutes left on the clock, and the highest-scoring jammer of the season, Cherrylicious, alone on the jammer start line. Cherrylicious would close the door on the Mods’ chances, getting lead jammer and 8 points before calling off the jam upon Duchess’ return to play, making it 63-45 with only enough time for one more jam. Rainbow’s Revenge picked up a 9-4 win over Ali Kaida to finish out the bout, but that wouldn’t be enough to close the deficit, and the Dolls finished the season 3-4 with their third straight victory over the 0-7 Mods, 67-54.
The Dolls’ Cherrylicious put a capper on a sparkling rookie season by yet again leading her team with 27 points and also sporting the best jammer point differential with a +12; to top it off, she ended the season with 235 points, barely beating out Joy Collision’s 227 for the 2007 scoring title. The Mods’ guest skaters turned out to be their primary point producers, with Nash Villain leading the Mods with 16 points and Rainbow’s Revenge just behind with 15 (oddly enough, both guests ended up with a perfectly even jammer point differential of zero.) 77 minors and 7 majors were assigned to the Mods, while the Dolls picked up 62 minors and 6 majors. The Dolls won the crucial lead jammer battle by taking it on 11 jams, while the Mods got it on 9. In the 23 jams of the bout, there were 3 with no lead jammer.
Additional reporting: Concealed Carrie
October 16th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
YEAH DOLLS!!!!! Wish I was there to see that!!
I LOVE YOU!!!!
October 16th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
wow, i missed the star ordeal.