UPDATE: Also check out Elwood Bruise's take on the bout at All Bout Derby.
Rose City was a rough host for Charm City on Saturday night, sending the girls from Baltimore packing with their most lopsided loss to date, 126-37. It was the first bout for Charm City since April, while Rose City's most recent action was an October loss to Gotham in New York by a score of 129-86. Madame Bumpsalot was a late scratch from the Rose City roster, and alternate D-Day stepped in to play for her.
Rhea DeRange assists jammer November Pain out of the pack. Photo credit: Steven Price
Charm City was in the lead for exactly one jam, as their jammer Joy Collision nabbed lead on the opening jam and scored a 2-1 win over Rose City's November Pain, but the second jam of the night gave Rose City a momentum boost that they'd ride for the rest of the bout. D. Konstructor ran up three scoring laps against Psycho78, who was unable to break through the Rose City defense, and the result was a crowd-igniting 14-0 win for Rose City. It would prove to be the biggest margin of the bout, and although Charm City would keep the jam margins close for the next 20 minutes, they were never able to recover from that blow. In an attempt to get back in the game, Charm City would rely heavily on their two fastest jammers, Joy Collision and Dolly Rocket, over the next series of jams -- they jammed in six of the next seven -- but it wasn't enough to turn the tide. Joy pulled a 2-1 win out over Rhea DeRange on the third jam, but Rose City would answer with two quick 4-0 wins before Joy again got a narrow one-point win with a 3-2 over D. Konstructor. This brought the score to Rose City 26, Charm City 7 about ten minutes into the game. On the following jam, Charm City's Dolly Rocket would burst out of the pack first with lead jammer status, but Ava Skatrix was right behind her. Dolly repeatedly tried to take Ava down in an attempt to fully capitalize on her lead jammer status, but Ava impressively withstood her blows until she was finally able to sneak past Dolly as they neared the pack, and in the end the jam ended up going 1-0 for Rose City as Ava got into the pack before Dolly could get the jam called.
Joy Collision wants a call as Charm City jammer Dolly Rocket takes a tumble over Rose City blocker Megahurtz. Photo credit: Steven Price.
Two jams later, there was more trouble for Charm City as Dolly Rocket barely false-started before the jammer whistle, but did not hear her jammer referee telling her to yield the advantage -- as she reached the pack, she found herself sent to the box on a rare false-start major. This might have allowed Rose City jammer November Pain to run up a big score, but she picked up her fourth minor by cutting track at the end of her first scoring pass, ending the jam on a 4-0 and making the score Rose City 34, Charm City 8. It wouldn't be until the 12th jam of the half that Charm City was able to win a jam by more than a single point, when Dolly Rocket ran up a 5-0 grand slam on D. Konstructor. At that point the girls from Baltimore were still theoretically in the game with the score standing Rose City 39, Charm City 13 and about ten minutes left in the period, but it would spiral out of control for the visitors as the half concluded. Not a single point would go on the board for Charm City, while Rose City dropped a series of six shutout jams that got the near-capacity crowd roaring -- a 10-0, 5-0, 3-0, 3-0, 0-0 and a final 8-0 to cap off a 29-0 run that all but buried Charm City's chances. At the half, the score stood at Rose City 68, Charm City 13.
The second half began with Charm City playing some impressive defense -- their jammer Pistol Whip started the first jam in the box, but Charm City managed to hold back opposing jammer D. Konstructor for the 44 seconds remaining on Pistol's penalty and allow Pistol to notch a 2-0 win. However, it wouldn't be long till it was back to more of the same in Rose City's favor. Charm City jammers had consistent problems dealing with the speed of the Rose City pack, as they would often pass what they expected to be the last line of defense only to be re-absorbed by reinforcements swarming up from behind. On the fourth jam of the half, Rose City's defense stepped up strong when their jammer Goodie Two Skates went to the box early in the jam -- Charm City's Cherrylicious had a minute to work unopposed but could not finish her first scoring lap before Goodie was freed from the box, and Cherry had to settle for a 3-0 win that put the score at Rose City 76, Charm City 18. There would only be one more mini-rally by Charm City -- about midway through the half, Joy Collision got lead jammer and a 4-0 win over Rhea Derange, and Charm City's Flo Shizzle (who saw all of her jamming action in the second half) got lead and a 3-0 over Goodie Two Skates, making it Rose City 83, Charm City 25.
Charm City pivot Mibbs Breakin' Ribs faces off against Rose City's Angry Wench, while Flo Shizzle and Teq Kill Ya watch for the jammer approach. Photo credit: Steven Price.
Those would be the last jams that Charm City would win, though. With about eight minutes to play, Angry Wench put the Rose City over the century mark at 103-31 by beating out Joy Collision 4-1, and four jams later the bout would come to an end on a 11-4 win for November Pain over Flo Shizzle. Charm City had played a slightly better second half, although they were still doubled up -- the second half went 58-24 for Rose City, adding up to a final of Rose City 126, Charm City 37.
Leading scorers in the bout were D. Konstructor for Rose City, with 41 points on 9 jams, and Joy Collision for Charm City, with 13 points on 9 jams. D. Konstructor also ran up the highest average points per jam with 4.5, but her teammate November Pain barely beat her out for the best jammer point differential, sporting a +27 to Konstructor's +26. For Charm City, it was Cherrylicious looking the best in that category with a -1 for her two jamming appearances. Rose City had a significant lead in nabbing lead jammer status, taking it on 17 jams against 13 for Charm City. For Rose City, Rhea Derange was most effective at claiming lead jammer, pulling it on five of eight tries for 62%, while Charm City's Joy Collision got it on five of nine tries for 55%. In the 33 jams of the bout, only two had no lead jammer.
Rose City goes dormant as a travel team for a bit, with no interleague games currently scheduled, while Charm City challenges Minnesota in a doubleheader event in Minneapolis that also finds Minnesota taking on Arizona; that action goes down on December 8th.
