WFTDA Bout Recap: (22) Charm City 73, (11) Minnesota 69
Posted by Justice Feelgood Marshall on December 10th, 2007
ST. PAUL, MN — #22-ranked Charm City bounced back impressively from their recent big loss to Portland, going up against #11-ranked Minnesota and pulling out a 73-69 upset victory.
Charm City would get out of the gate slow. After a opening 4-3 jam that saw Charm City’s Flo Shizzle grab lead but still finish the jam a point shy of Minnesota’s Lizzy the Axe, they ran into some unexpected trouble when jammer Cherrylicious broke her skate early in the following jam. The jam was called at 0-0, and Flo Shizzle would get shut out twice in the next two jams by Jawbreaker and Susie Smashbox, putting the home team up 11-3 early in the half. Charm City seemed to wake up a bit at that point, firing back with a 20-5 run over the next four jams that gave them a 23-16 lead with about 16 minutes left in the half, but at that point they suddenly started finding it a lot harder to get points on the board.
Both Flo Shizzle and Lady Quebeaum picked up their fourth minors as jammers late in the period, giving Minnesota some opportunities to work unopposed at the jammer line, but the Charm City defense stepped up strong. In the four jams where Charm City had Flo or Quebeaum in the box for part of the time, the score was an impressive Minnesota 1, Charm City 1. Still, though, Charm City’s scoring troubles would eventually cost them the lead, and the period ended with the scoreboard favoring the home team, 32-28.
It was noticeable by halftime that Charm City was taking a different plan of attack on the jammer line than they had in the past. Charm City’s highest-scoring jammer, Joy Collision, did not take the star a single time in the half and Dolly Rocket, also heavily relied on in the recent Rose City bout, went only once. This created a game dynamic that was less about speed and more about defensive positional battling in the pack. In fact, there was only one jam in the entire half in which either team managed to get in more than one scoring pass.
The second half started with a bit of controversy, as Minnesota’s Lizzy the Axe beat Dolly Rocket 3-2 and then Dolly found herself on the business end of a little between-jams scuffle with Minnesota’s Rumblebee and Scootaloo. A lengthy timeout followed as the Charm City bench was vehemently but vainly agitating for harsher punishments than the two majors that the referees were willing to dole out to Rumblebee and Scootaloo.
Two jams later, though, Charm City would take the lead back on their biggest jam of the night. Jawbreaker, jamming for Minnesota, was forced by the penalty box cap to skate directly into the penalty box at the beginning of jam 4. This left the floor wide open for Flo Shizzle to get 9 points, lead jammer, and the ability to call off the jam in time to shut out the returning Jawbreaker. It was Charm CIty 42, Minnesota 37, and as the bout entered its final 20 minutes, Minnesota started running into big problems with jammer penalties.
First, it would be Vuedoo Prodigy getting lead jammer status but losing it on her way to the penalty box. Still, though, the Minnesota defense got her a 3-2 jam win on that one, and then on the subsequent jam Vuedoo exploded out of the penalty box to surprise the pack and get lead jammer again on her way to another 3-2 win, this time over Lady Quebeaum. This got Minnesota to within 3 points at 51-48, and then, with about 12 minutes left on the clock, Jawbreaker got a 2-0 jam win over Cherrylicious that made it a 2 point game at Charm City 54, Minnesota 52.
Over the next series of six jams, though, Minnesota found their jammers heading to the penalty box on accumulated minors on literally every other jam — a situation that didn’t sit very well with the home audience, but that Charm City was able to turn into an effective run. Pistol Whip, going for Charm City in her single jam of the evening, made it count with a 7-0 over Angelfire, who ended the jam in the box. Two jams later, it was Lizzy the Axe’s turn to take an early exit from a jam, and Cherrylicious’ 2-0 win gave Charm City their biggest lead of the night at 12 points — Charm City 65, Minnesota 53. And two jams after that, Susie Smashbox entered the box halfway through a 4-2 jam win for Lady Quebeaum.
With the score 70-59 for Charm City, just under 4 minutes left in the bout, Joy Collision on the jammer line for Charm City and Susie Smashbox still in the box for Minnesota, things were not looking particularly promising for Minnesota, but Smashbox managed to nab lead jammer on a surprise entry to the pack and the Minnesota defense was very effective in holding back Joy. Smashbox would get Minnesota’s biggest jam win of the night just when her team needed it the most, putting up a 10-1 over Joy that once again got Minnesota to within 2 points, 71-69, with just 1:13 left to play.
With the Roy Wilkins Auditorium going wild, Charm City called a timeout to analyze a tough situation — Coach Ballbricker and Stormin’ Mormon were already in the penalty box, giving Minnesota a numbers advantage in the pack. Meanwhile, trying to avoid the penalty trouble that had plagued them through the half, Minnesota sent a number of jammers to the line before settling on Vuedoo Prodigy. Flo Shizzle took the jammer star for Charm City, with Dolly Rocket and Joy Collision blocking for her in the pack. When Coach Ballbricker was freed from the box, she made a beeline for Prodigy and took her down with a forearm — enough to get hit with a major and sent directly back to the box, but also enough to severely slow Prodigy’s path through the pack. Stormin’ Mormon would get in front of Prodigy for the rest of the jam, and there’d be no more points for Minnesota, while Flo was able to tack on two more for Charm City. Final score: Charm City 73, Minnesota 69.
UPDATE: Video from the last jam
Unofficial stats: Flo Shizzle led Charm City with 31 points on 12 jams, while Pistol Whip had the best Charm City jammer point differential on just one jam, with a +7. For Minnesota, Susie Smashbox led a balanced jammer attack with 18 points on 5 jams, and also led all jammers in point differential with a +12.Next up for Charm City is their first all-star home game since March 2007; they’ll be battling the Dallas Derby Devils on January 20th. Minnesota does not currently have their next all-star bout scheduled.
December 10th, 2007 at 11:46 am
YEAH!!! Way to go ladies!!!
December 10th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
WOOHOOOO!!!! So proud to be from Charm City!!
howie~
December 10th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Dolly found herself on the business end of a little between-jams scuffle with Minnesota’s Rumblebee and Scootaloo
thats putting it lightly, don’t you think?
December 10th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I guess I’ll have to wait for practice to find out what happened. Sucks not to be able to watch this stuff on TV.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:55 am
Shortly thereafter the ref squad found themselves on the business end of Mr. Pistol’s mustachio’d verbal revenge…..later yet the people of Minnesota were subjected to the business end of the scoreboard…..and finally Lady Quebeaum’s cell phone found itself on the business end of the seemingly endless supply of complimentary PBR in the twin cities.
December 11th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Way to go ladies! I was on pins and needles after I got the halftime score!
January 18th, 2008 at 3:39 am
[...] (12) Arizona 24 @ (11) Minnesota 87 WFTDA regulation (22) Charm City 73 @ (11) Minnesota 69 Read the recap! WFTDA regulation (25) Ohio 83 @ (24) Grand Raggidy 89 Bay Area Championship Bout Richmond [...]
February 15th, 2008 at 6:12 am
[...] (12) Arizona 24 @ (11) Minnesota 87 WFTDA regulation (22) Charm City 73 @ (11) Minnesota 69 Read the recap! WFTDA regulation (25) Ohio 83 @ (24) Grand Raggidy 89 Bay Area Championship Bout Richmond [...]