BALTIMORE, MD - In front of an estimated 1500 Baltimore fans, 15th-ranked Charm City rolled to a solid win on Sunday night by defeating currently unranked Ohio by a final of 132-64. The victory came at a bit of a price, though, as a number of injuries to key Charm City players scrambled their lineup and indefinitely sidelined one of their most effective jammers, Flo Shizzle.

While Charm City struck first with a 5-0 jam for Coach Ballbricker over Ohio's Barracuda, Ohio answered immediately with a 4-0 for Pippi Ripyourstockings over Pistol Whip. On the subsequent jam, Charm City's Dolly Rocket and Stormin' Mormon stymied Ohio jammer Drrty Girl throughout her first pass, allowing Charm City's Joy Collision to get the 5-0 grand slam and promptly call the jam. A couple of jams later, Charm City had to deal with the unexpected loss of Flo Shizzle, who was on the right side of a 5-3 jam with Drrty Grrl but suffered a freak injury when entering the penalty box at the end of the jam -- an awkward entry caused an apparent quadricep tear, and she'd be removed by stretcher from the playing area. (Flo stayed at the venue for the duration of the bout, although she didn't play again -- the extent of the injury is still uncertain.)

With the score Charm City 15, Ohio 7 at this point and Ohio starting with Pippi Ripyourstockings unopposed on the jam line, Charm City got an effective defensive performance from Dolly Rocket, Holly Go Hardly and Stormin' Mormon, who combined to hold Pippi to just 3 points until she was finally forced to call the jam. The home team seemed to take control of the action for the middle of the half -- over the following seven jams, Charm City pulled lead 5 of 7 times and turned it into a big 40-10 run that climaxed with their biggest jam margin of the bout, a 14-0 for Cherrylicious over Barracuda.

That moved the score to Charm City 55, Ohio 20, but then it was Ohio's turn to get hot. In her first appearance at the jammer line, Charm City's Dr. Skabs would get lead but also go to the penalty box before managing to get on the scoreboard, and that allowed Ohio jammer Barracuda to get Ohio's biggest jam margin of the bout with an 8-0. On the subsequent jam, Skabs found herself walled up behind Ohio's Triptease and Tha Devil upon her release from the penalty box, and Pippi Ripyourstockings took that opportunity to drop a 4-0 on Charm City. Ohio managed to close the gap considerably before halftime, going on a 16-2 run that left the midpoint score at Charm City 57, Ohio 36.

By halftime, it was apparent that Flo wasn't the only Charm City star hurting -- Pistol Whip did not go to the jam line in the second half, and for the first time as a CCRG all-star, Dolly Rocket wouldn't take a single trip to the jam line during the bout. It was Cherrylicious, skating in her final bout for Charm City, who would be leading the scoring charge for the last 30 minutes.

The second half opened with the teams trading victories again -- 7-4 for Cherrylicious over Pippi and then a 5-0 for Ohio's Foxy Force over Lady Quebeaum (who got decked by Tha Devil, allowing Foxy to get that grand slam point). That put the score at Charm City 71, Ohio 50, but after that, Charm City began to own the lead jammer battle and open up the game. Ohio wouldn't get another lead jammer call for 10 jams in a row, and during that time Charm City rolled up 42 points to just 8 for Ohio.

On the tenth jam of the period, with the score Charm City 104, Ohio 57, there was a bit of a memorable and unintentional but surprisingly effective play as Joy Collison and Coach Ballbricker both set up to sandwich-block Ohio jammer Drrty Girl -- but both missed and hit each other. The force of the blocks canceled each other out and both blockers came to a nearly complete halt, leaving them surprised and confused and Drrty completely trapped full-stop behind them. It was right in front of the Charm City bench, which highly approved of the unconventional manuever.

Ohio got a couple of small-margin jam wins as the clock wore down, as Drrty Girl grabbed a 2-0 over Dr. Skabs and Pippi Ripyourstockings followed that up with Ohio's only 4-0 of the half, a win over Cherrylicious -- but the last minutes of the bout belonged to Stormin' Mormon and Cherrylicious. With about six minutes to play, Stormin' managed to battle her way through some tough blocking from Triptease, Chewblocka and Hell Camino on her way to a 9-0 win over Drrty Girl, and on the final jam of the night, fan favorite Cherrylicious got a rowdy standing ovation from the crowd for her last jam for the Baltimore team. With the help of Rosie the Rioter, Mibbs Breakin' Ribs and Joy Collision seriously hampering Pippi Ripyourstockings' trip through the pack, Cherry would get lead jammer, a grand slam point, and the ability to call off the jam one last time with a 9-0 score to top off a big Charm City victory, 132-64.

Stats

Cherrylicious had arguably her best game at the jammer line, running up 47 points on 8 jams, building a very impressive jammer point differential of +37, and tying Joy Collision with a 75% lead jammer percentage -- they both took lead on 6 out of 8 tries. Stormin' Mormon also had a striking stat of her own wearing the jammer star -- she went 3 times for 21 points, getting the highest average points per jam with 7 -- but more importantly, her opposing jammers never got on the board, leaving her with a perfect jammer point differential of +21.

With the injuries to Flo, Dolly Rocket and Pistol Whip, Charm City would send 9 of their 14 players to the jam line during the bout: Joy Collision (22 points on 8 jams), Pistol Whip (13 points on 5 jams), Dr. Skabs (11 points on 6 jams), Duchess of Torque (7 points on 1 jam), Coach Ballbricker (5 points on 1 jam), Flo Shizzle (5 points on 2 jams), and Lady Quebeaum (1 point on 2 jams).

On the Ohio side, Pippi Ripyourstockings was the points leader, notching 21 points on 9 jams, and sharing the best jammer point differential with Foxy Force -- both ended with a -2. Drrty Girl went to the jammer line more than any other player from either team, with 10 jams and 12 points to show for it. Barracuda picked up 12 points on 6 jams. The scoring was rounded out by Foxy Force (8 points, 6 jams), Gypsy Warfare (6 points, 3 jams) and Hell Camino (5 points, 2 jams.)

Ohio begins their home season on March 2 with an intraleague doubleheader as the Take Outs face the Sprockettes and the Blackeye Bullies go up against the Band of Brawlers. Charm City hosts 13th-ranked Rocky Mountain on March 15th.

Additional reporting: Johnny Zebra, Concealed Carrie

Photography: Maryland1RN