Expo Bout Recap: CCRG Night Terrors 117, PRG Philthy Britches 80
Posted by Justice Feelgood Marshall on January 29th, 2008
FEASTERVILLE, PA — When the Philly and Charm City all-star teams faced each other in January 2007, the Liberty Belles meted out a 50-point schooling of the younger team. Almost exactly a year later, though, the Charm City local champion Night Terrors got a measure of revenge for their league, sending the Philly home champs Philthy Britches to their first defeat ever, 117-80. Both teams came into this bout with offsetting handicaps. The Britches were only skating 11 players, and of those, only 4 were on the current Philly all-star team. While the Night Terrors brought 13 and had 8 all-star players, 6 of them had just finished playing a full-length bout, as they were on the Dolls squad in the first contest of the doubleheader event.
The bout started in a very similar fashion to the neck-and-neck battle between the Dolls and the Hookers, with neither team able to establish a significant advantage. The Britches took the first lead as Mo Pain scored a 3-2 win over Joy Collision, as Joy was forced to call the jam as she took a tumble during a failed assist from Mibbs Breakin’ Ribs. (Mibbs aggravated an ongoing knee injury in that first jam; while she remained in the game, it seemed to bother her throughout.)
The lead flipped to the Terrors on the following jam where Pistol Whip got lead and a 4-0 jam over Gloria Grindem, and the visitors would hold it for about 10 minutes. But on jam 8, Violet Temper momentarily gave the Britches the lead with her own 4-0 over Pistol Whip, making the score Britches 22, Terrors 21. That would be the last time the Britches were ahead, though. On the subsequent jam, Britches blocker Olivia Face found herself all alone in the pack after the majority of her team set up shop in the penalty box, and eventually jammer Mo Pain went to join them. Terrors jammer Stormin’ Mormon tallied up 11 points to 0 for Mo, and it was Terrors 32, Britches 22.
Jam 10 ended on a unique heads-up play by Terrors jammer Cherrylicious — she got lead jammer status and had a lap advantage on Mo Pain, but during her first scoring pass, she took a hard block that sent her into the infield, past the entire pack. Realizing she was in danger of a cutting track major as soon as her momentum brought her back into play, she wildly motioned for the jam to be called. While the jam only went 1-0 for the Terrors, it saved them a crucial jammerless minute.
With 9:33 left to play in the half, the Terrors had opened a 50-32 advantage, with some especially tenacious blocking from Frenzy Lohan and Holly Go Hardly in the pack giving their team five lead jammer calls in a row. Their defense had an especially big moment during jam 17, when a pack of Frenzy, Cherrylicious, Cheeta Torpeda and Mibbs Breakin’ Ribs very effectively killed a power play against Mo Pain, holding her to a single pass while jammer Joy Collision languished in the penalty box for a minute. Though the Britches would get as close as 10 points, the half would end on a big jam for the Terrors, as Joy Collision beat out Britches rookie Racey Intent 9-3 to give the visitors a 65-49 lead at the half.
While the Terrors maintained the status quo for the first five jams of the second half, the Britches got a golden opportunity with 22 minutes left in the bout. The speedy Racey Intent took a big whip from Gloria Grindem to attain lead jammer, but both Racey and opposing jammer Cherrylicious went to the box during the jam. However, the Terrors only had a single blocker out on the track when that jam ended — Sister Midnight — and therefore Midnight, who had never before taken the jammer star in a bout, was forced into emergency jamming duty with only teammate Penaltyna in the pack to help her.
Though Midnight gave it a valiant effort, the Britches advantage in the pack was too much to overcome and she went to the penalty box during her opening pass — but opposing jammer Gloria Grindem also pulled her fourth minor after getting only 3 points, saving the Terrors from a potentially lopsided jam score and putting the total at Terrors 77, Britches 62.Though the Britches had a consistent run of lead jammer calls throughout the middle of the half — from jam 4 to jam jam 14, they got lead on 8 out of 10 tries — the tough Terrors defense never allowed more than 5 points in a jam, and the Terrors hung on to a lead that hovered around 15 points for most of the half.
The Terrors solidly closed the door with about 7 minutes left to play and the score Terrors 91, Britches 78. A especially tough defensive squad of Mibbs Breakin’ Ribs, Dolly Rocket, Holly Go Hardly and Pixie Rocket were all over Britches jammer Violet Temper, keeping her scoreless while Stormin’ Mormon was able to run up two 5 point grand slam laps. Violet entered the box at the end of that jam, and the Terrors handed the star for the unopposed jam to Joy Collision, who showed zero signs of fatigue as she scampered for a game-sealing 15-0 jam that pushed the score to Terrors 116, Britches 78. Three jams later, the visitors were the victors, 117-80.
Joy Collision was a scoring machine for the Terrors, racking up 50 points on 14 jams, with a very impressive game-leading jammer point differential of +36 — just one point less than the margin of victory. Meanwhile, Stormin’ Mormon continued her night-long coming-out party as a jammer, getting the highest average points per jam with 5.6 — she brought in 34 points in just 6 jams, and rang up an impressive point differential of her own with a +24. Dolly Rocket was only sent to the jammer line three times, but pulled lead each time for a 100% lead jammer percentage.
For the Britches, Mo Pain was the leader, with 38 points on 16 jams. She also got the most lead jams in the bout, claiming them 8 times for a 50% lead jammer percentage, and was the only Britches jammer in positive point differential, with a +7. Rookie Racey Intent, skating in her first bout ever, demonstrated some extremely impressive speed in her six jams, but was unlucky enough to square off against Joy Collision in four of those — her 8 point total likely would have been higher otherwise.
The 2008 Charm City intraleague season is as yet unscheduled, but the Britches will be back in action on March 15th, taking on their local rivals, the Broad St. Butchers.