WFTDA Bout Recap: (i) Pikes Peak 88, (u) Sacred City 85
Posted by Southbayfan on February 20th, 2008
ROSEVILLE, CA — On Saturday, February 16th, at Roseville’s Roller King roller rink in California, an upstart Sacred City team playing their first WFTDA sanctioned bout took on an experienced and recently victorious Pikes Peak Derby Dames from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Just a weekend ago, Pikes Peak had managed to erase a 20-point halftime deficit to score a victory over Houston by 20 points, 117-97.
Pikes Peak came to California prepared — having studied the video of the Sacred City / Jet City bout from last October, they felt confident of what to expect from Sacred City, and were keeping their eye on Daddy’s Girl. Since Dust Devil, Pikes Peak had some new additions to the team, a couple of them being two all-round badass sisters by the names of Psycho Babble and De Ranged. Sacred City having heard through the grapevine that Pikes Peak was a very aggressive team, were watching out for De Ranged and Rolleene Thunda. Sacred’s plan was to counter defensively with Spillher, Rosie Knuckles, Daddy’s Girl, Shadow Soldier and Foxy Knoxy.
The only change to the announced rosters was on the Pikes Peak side. Tara ToPeices had a most unfortunate face-plant in the practice before traveling to the bout and was not skating due to a broken eye socket. Alternate Karma Getch YA skated in her place.
The first jam featured Candy Crusher jamming for Sacred City and Rolleene Thunda for Pikes Peak. Sacred City blocker Daddy’s Girl jumped out and took control of the pack, and Candy got lead jammer quickly, but could only make it by two PPDD blockers on her scoring pass before she was knocked down and she called off the jam from the floor. This jam set the tone of the game. It was to be fast, hard hitting, defensive, and contain lots of penalties.
Pikes Peak would strike back in the second jam with Psycho Babble taking 4 points from Orange Crush. Mugshot Mary would respond with a 3-0 jam over Kamilla BloodSpilla. Back and forth the game flowed, with no team able to hold a lead for longer than two jams. With penalties piling up, both teams were skating with skaters in the box, every jam.
In the 10th jam with Pikes Peak jammer Kamilla in the box, Sacred’s Orange Crush (a/k/a “Crushie”) was jamming alone. Sacred City was down a blocker, as usual. As the jam started, Spillher took out Pepper Slay with a big block, freeing Crushie to take lead jammer. She powered around the track and through the pack again to get a grand slam, just before Kamilla could reenter the track. The two jammers circled around and approached the pack. Crushie passed a PPDD blocker, but the rest of the Dames surrounded her and Crushie got crunched. She called off the jam from the floor — the usual place jammers in this bout called off the jams. The 10th jam was unusual in only one respect — Sacred City took a 7 point lead, 34-27. It was Sacred’s biggest lead of the game so far, and they managed to hold on to it for the next six jams.
With 1:36 left in the period, the score was 39-32 for Sacred. Mugshot Mary jammed for Sacred and Psycho Babble for Pikes Peak, with Sacred down a blocker and Pikes Peak at full strength. Psycho had been Pikes Peak’s only effective jammer of the period, while Mugshot had been putting in a journey(wo)man effort. Psycho easily got lead jammer while the Pikes Peak blockers held up Mugshot. Psycho zipped through for four and passed Mugshot on the straightaway to make a grand slam, when Mugshot tried an ill advised block on Psycho. Both jammers entered the pack as time ran out. The jam score would go 7-1 Pikes Peak, making it 40-39 Sacred City at the break.
The second period picked up right where the first left off — 3 SCDG blockers to 2 PPDD. Psycho jammed alone for Pikes Peak, as Mugshot Mary sat for her first period misdeeds. Psycho made it through the pack but was not awarded lead jammer — however, she’d pull down 8 points to none for Mary, and Pikes Peak jumped out to a seven point lead at 47-40.
After a 2-0 jam between Sacred’s Candy Crusher and Pikes Peak’s The Swiss Missile, there were a couple of back-to-back jams that ended early. First, Spiller took a fact plant and was slow to get up, causing the jam to be called for injury at 0-0. Next, Mugshot Mary and Rolleene Thunda lined up, and Mugshot got lead jammer as Daddy’s Girl flattened Thunda. But as Mary was making her scoring pass, the refs called this jam off as well when as one of Psycho Babble’s wheels freed itself and went careening around the track without her. Mugshot picked up 2 points, further cutting into the Pikes Peak lead, 47-44.
Sacred would finally make their move three jams later, as a tiring Thunda went up against Mugshot Mary — Mary dropped a 10-0 over Thunda to give Sacred the lead at 64-57. Two jams after that, an 8-0 victory for Candy Crusher over Pepper Slay gave Sacred the biggest lead of the game thus far at 76-65. Psycho Babble managed to hit back with a 4-0 over Crushie to reduce Sacred’s lead to 76-69. In the next three jams, only 3 points were scored — two for Sacred and one for Pikes Peak, moving the score to 78 Sacred, 70 Pikes Peak.
With 7:15 left in the bout, pressure began to take a toll on the skaters. A mental error by Psycho Babble caused her to call a jam off when she wasn’t lead jammer, giving herself a costly major — on the following jam, Daddy’s Girl would jam alone for Sacred and extend her team’s lead to 13 points. The score was 84-71 in favor of Sacred City, and with only 4 minutes on the clock, the game looked to be Sacred City’s. But the dire situation only seemed to make Pikes Peak more determined. With 2 SCDG blockers to 3 PPDD, Pikes Peak’s De Ranged floored Sacred’s Candy at the jammer line. De Ranged would cut the track during her opening pass, losing eligibility for lead jammer — but Candy was still trying to fight her way through her own opening pass as De Ranged screamed around the track for her scoring pass. De Ranged passed through the pack for four points before Candy finally got through with lead jammer and called the jam off to stop the bleeding with the score 84-75 Sacred City.
With 3:10 left and 3 SCDG blockers to 4 PPDD, Psycho Babble seemed to be skating her fastest of the night. Psycho pulled lead jammer easily over Crushie, but only 2 points on her first pass through the pack as Daddy’s Girl knocked her down. Crushie made it through the pack and Sacred’s blocker was sprung from the box, making it a full set of blockers for both teams. With both jammers going through the pack Pepper Slay flattened Crushie and Mugshot Mary took out Psycho beyond the 20 foot distance — but the 6-1 jam in the Dames favor narrowed the deficit even further, with the score at 85-81 Sacred.
Only about a minute was left to play as Pikes Peak took their last time out to stop the clock and discuss what to do on the last jam. Yet again, both teams were playing short, with 3 blockers in each pack and De Ranged jamming for Pikes Peak against Sacred’s Candy Crusher. De Ranged got off the line like she was shot out of a cannon, quickly getting through the pack with lead jammer. Candy was leveled by a PPDD blocker and De Ranged got the grand slam, but chose not to call off the jam, giving Candy a shot to earn some points and win the game … but just as Candy was about to enter the pack another PPDD blocker took her out. The clock ran out on a 7-0 jam for De Ranged, giving Pikes Peak a thrilling 88-85 comeback victory.
Roseville’s paid attendance was 733 heart-broken fans.
Top jammers for Pikes Peak were Psycho Babble with 41 points in 11 jams and a point differential of +28, and De Ranged with 28 points in 5 jams and a point differential of +14. Sacred City’s top jammers were Orange Crush with 29 points in 9 jams and a point differential of +6, and Mugshot Mary with 26 points in 9 jams and a point differential of +1.
It was a penaltyfest of a game for both teams — 232 total penalties were recorded, with 107 for Pikes Peak and 125 for Sacred City. There was plenty of hitting of skaters while they were out of play as well as cutting across the infield to deliver hits. Penalty queens for the game were Spillher with 23 for Sacred City and for Pikes Peak, De Ranged with 21.
Sacred City’s next action will be in a California state tournament billed as “The Big One” on April 5th and 6th, competing against seven other California leagues for the unofficial title of California champion. Pikes Peak has an intraleague game on March 8th between home teams Danger Dolls and Candy Snipers, with their next all-star action scheduled for April 19 against the 19th ranked Dallas Derby Devils.
Photography: Boss Hogg