DETROIT, MI -- A very impressive second-half performance from #23 Grand Raggidy wasn't quite enough for what would have been a massive upset over #8 Detroit, but the girls from Grand Rapids fell only 12 points short in Saturday night's 94-82 struggle in Detroit. Grand Raggidy skated hard out of the box to take a quick five point lead, but then Detroit got the lead in jam 3 and held that lead all the way to the end of the game.

While Detroit led by 21 points near the end of the second half, Grand Raggidy put a late scare into the favored team, cutting the lead to only 10 points with 5:45 to play -- but Detroit MVP Killbox pulled off an 8-4 jam with a grand slam to up Detroit’s lead to 14, then threw in another 2-0 jam very late in the game to seal the 12 point victory. Killbox skated away with MVP honors on the night, scoring a game-high 35 points in 7 jams, getting lead 71% of the time.

It was a very defensive oriented game. There were only 5 grand slams in the game, 4 by Detroit. The DDG were shut out in 20 of the game’s 41 jams, and were held to less than four points in 8 other jams. Similarly, Grand Raggidy was shut out in 14 jams, scoring fewer than four points in 17 other jams.

Detroit won the 1st half 46-32, then Grand Raggidy came back to outscore Detroit 50-48 in the second half, falling a little short on the scoreboard. A huge surprise in the game was Grand Raggidy holding Detroit’s phenom jammer, Racer McChaseHer, to only 11 points for the game, far below Racer’s travel team average of 48.3 points per game.

1st Half

MP3: Post-bout interview with Detroit's Roxanna Hardplace (1:41)

Grand Raggidy started Dot Matrix at pivot, Bette Mangler, Terrorhawk and Lindsay Blowhan as blockers, and Mira Maheiney at jammer. Detroit countered with pivot Killbox, blockers Roxanna Hardplace (seeing her first travel team action), Honey Suckit and Del Bomber, and Polly Fester at jammer. Mira made a nice move to pass Killbox on the inside to earn lead jammer, but then on her scoring pass Mira couldn’t get by Killbox again, so called off the jam after staking Grand Raggidy to a 3-0 lead. In jam 2, GR’s Jackie Daniels forced her way through the pack to lead jammer, scored two points and was then stymied by Detroit’s wall and so called the jam. GR led 5-0, and that was the last time they led in the game.

Detroit jammed Honey Suckit against Racey Wreck’Hell in jam 3. Racey had a tough time in the pack, first getting knocked down by Del Bomber, then getting forced off the track by Vicious Vixen. Meanwhile, Honey Suckit made two 4-point scoring passes and won the jam 8-2, putting DDG in the lead, 8-7. In jam 4, Detroit’s Killbox hip-whipped herself off Summers Eve-L and into lead jammer, but then Mira Maheiney passed Killbox. Killbox didn’t call the jam even when Mira started scoring first, although eventually Killbox was able to win the jam 4-2 for the DDG, upping Detroit’s lead to 12-9. Jackie Daniels got a couple of points back for GR in jam 5, helped by a nice block from Bette Mangler knocking Roxanna Hardplace out of the way. That closed the score to 13-12, the last time Grand Raggidy was within one point of the lead.

The middle of the 1st period saw Detroit slowly build a lead. The DDG led 24-14 after jam 8, then GR chipped away to reduce the lead to 28-22 after jam 13. Then Detroit pumped up their lead in jams 15-17 as Honey Suckit and Polly Fester each scored 5-0 jam wins with grand slams followed by a 4-0 jam win by Effin’ Money. That gave DDG a 45-24 lead, and it was starting to look like maybe Detroit was starting to run away with the game.

Grand Raggidy wouldn't let that happen, though, outscoring Detroit 8-1 in the last four jams of the half, including a nice 5-0 grand slam from Dot Matrix in jam 20. That made the halftime score 46-32 for Detroit.

In that first half, Detroit’s Racer McChaseHer jammed 5 times and only scored 2 points. After the game, Detroit said Racer was skating with 3 minor penalties and so they were loath to jam her until she could get a 4th minor and a trip to the penalty box out of the way; however, Racer did manage to pick up her 4th minor as a jammer and so lost major track time in jams 18 and 19.

Each team earned 10 lead jammers in the 1st period’s 21 jams.

2nd Half

MP3: Post bout interview with GRRG's Mira Maheiney (1:48)

Grand Raggidy’s Mira Maheiney grabbed lead jammer to open the second half, although Racer McChaseHer was right with her, stride for stride. Each skater scored 4 points on their first scoring pass, then Mira made a tactical error by not calling the jam quickly on the second scoring pass when Racer passed her. It turned out that Racer outscored Mira 7-5 on the jam, upping Detroit’s lead to 53-37. Honey Suckit got lead for DDG in jam 2, scoring 5 points to Jackie Daniels 3 points. Honey called the jam when she was floored by GR’s Bette Mangler.

After a couple of tie jams, Grand Raggidy's would get on a roll. Mira Maheiney and Jackie Daniels put up 3-0 and 4-0 jams to cut the lead to 66-55 Detroit, and while Racer McChaser won a narrow 2-0 to follow up, Grand Raggidy's Javelin doubled that with another Grand Raggidy 4-0. Suddenly the visitors had closed to within just 9 points at 68-59.

However, Detroit's Killbox had one of her “Focus Factor” jams in jam 9 just in time. She got lead with two Grand Raggidy blockers in the penalty box. GR’s jammer Racey Wreck’Hell got trapped in the pack, bounced around by some particularly hard blocking from Racer McChaseHer, and Killbox zoomed for a critical 11-2 win that restored DDG’s lead to 18 points, 79-61.

But every time Detroit thought they had gained some breathing space, Grand Raggidy made another charge. GR’s Mira Maheiney and Jackie Daniels once again put up 4-0 and 3-0 jam wins to cut the lead back to 11 points at 79-68. When DDG’s Polly Fester got a 5-0 slam to put DDG’s lead at 84-68, Mira and Jackie again put up 4-0 and 2-0 jams to get to 84-74 (with a timely block from Detroit's Cookie Rumble forcing Jackie to cut off the action early in that 2-0.)

Jam 17 started with only 5:45 remaining on the game clock, and it was DDG’s Killbox jamming versus Mira Maheiney. Killbox hip-whipped herself twice through the pack first, but neither jammer was declared lead. Killbox got through the pack on her scoring pass, but was only awarded 3 points. Mira did get 4 points on her scoring pass, but she was held up for quite some time by DDG’s blockers Polly Fester, Fatal Femme, and Racer McChaseHer. The blocking would allow for a key grand slam, as Killbox came around for 5 points on her last scoring pass, winning the jam 8-4 and upping her team’s lead to 92-78 with less than four minutes left to play.

Grand Raggidy still wasn’t about to give up. Jackie Daniels won jam 18 over Effin’ Money 4-0. JD scored quickly and quickly called the jam. That cut Detroit’s lead to 92-82. Then Killbox got lead for DDG in jam 19. The Detroit crowd finally started some serious cheering without being prompted. Killbox got two points and called the jam. Then GR put up Racey Wreck’Hell against Racer McChaseHer in the final jam of the game, but that jam started with only 30 seconds remaining on the game clock, and so time expired before the jammers could ever get close to scoring.

At the final whistle, the Detroit skaters and crowd were relieved that they were still in the lead as they won the game 94-82.

Afterthoughts

There were some folks who thought before this game that Detroit would easily be able to handle Grand Raggidy. After all, Detroit had beaten them twice before, by 67 and by 18 points. And that was before Detroit had Racer McChaseHer on the travel team. But Grand Raggidy has improved in the year since the last meeting between these teams, and the win for Detroit was not easy. While Detroit led after the 3rd jam of the game, the lead was never more than one good jam away from having GR come back to take the lead.

Each team had almost the same number of lead jammers, GR having a slight edge at 19-18 in that statistic. Grand Raggidy’s blockers did a fantastic job at containing Racer McChaseHer, only allowing Racer 11 points in 11 jams. Racer also only got 2 leads, and no grand slams. Racer was also a -13 in plus/minus as a jammer, only the 3rd time in 17 games that Racer was a minus jammer.

One thing that stood out, though, was Detroit’s blockers seemed to have just a slight edge in team tactics, particularly in the last half of the second half. There were several times when Detroit deliberately slowed down to split the pack enough to make the GR blockers have to yield and let the Detroit jammers pass without being blocked. There were a few other jams late in the game when DDG’s blockers totally controlled the front of the pack, bottling up the GR jammer, and the GR blockers were too slow to react to try to open a lane through the DDG blockers. Those little things the Detroit blockers did just a little bit better/smarter was the difference in the game. As in football, derby blockers don’t get the credit they so richly deserve!

Grand Raggidy also did a fine job containing most of the other DDG jammers, except for Killbox who scored 35 points in only 7 jams. Honey Suckit also had 18 points in 5 jams, a 3.60 per jam average. While Grand Raggidy’s jammers did score some points, only Racey Wreck’Hell was able to score more than 2 points per jam (Racey got 2.67 pts per jam). Jackie Daniels scored 24 points in 13 jams, a 1.85 pts per jam average, but she was the only GR jammer to be on the plus side of plus/minus with a +5 as a jammer. GR had to work hard for each and every point they scored -- DDG didn’t give away any free points on the evening.

Statistics

Detroit’s Killbox was the leading scorer and MVP, scoring 35 points in 5 jams, with 5 leads and 1 (official) grand slam. Killbox was also the leader in overall plus/minus with a +30. Other Detroit jammers: Honey Suckit (18 pts, 5 jams, 2 leads, 1 slam); Polly Fester (14 pts, 6 jams, 4 leads, 2 slams); Effin’ Money (12 pts, 6 jams, 4 leads); Racer McChaseHer (11 pts, 11 jams, 2 leads); Roxanna Hardplace (4 pts, 3 jams, 1 lead); Del Bomber (0 pts, 2 jams); Cookie Rumble (0 pts, 1 jam).

Grand Raggidy was led by Mira Maheiney’s 32 points in 16 jams with 8 leads. Other GR scorers were: Jackie Daniels (24 pts, 13 jams, 8 leads); Racey Wreck’Hell (16 pts, 6 jams, 1 lead); Dot Matrix (6 pts, 4 jams, 1 lead, 1 slam); Javelin (4 pts, 2 jams, 1 lead).

Detroit’s blocking was led by Cookie Rumble with 19 blocks, 12 assists, and 6 knockdowns. Other particularly strong blockers were Bikini Killer (12 B/13 A/4 KD) and Racer McChaseHer (12 B/11 A/4 KD). Del Bomber, Killbox, Polly Fester, Honey Suckit, and Vicious Vixen were other major contributors to the Detroit “D.” Other skaters who helped out with total team defense were Fatal Femme, Roxanna Hardplace, Summers Eve-L, and Effin’ Money.

Bette Mangler led Grand Raggidy defensively with 17 blocks, 3 assists, and a knockdown. Lindsay Blowhan (11 B/5 A), Javelin (11 B/2 A/1 KD), Terrorhawk (12 B/2 A), and Lucy Morals (9 B/3 A) were the next best (statistically speaking). Other skaters for GR, in order of defensive stats: Angie Warhaul, Mira Maheiney, Dot Matrix, The Vindicator, Tone Loco, Jackie Daniels, and Racey Wreck’Hell.

This was one of the least penalized games played in Detroit. Detroit had 58 minors and 6 majors, spending 16 minutes in the penalty box. Grand Raggidy only had 37 minors and 2 majors, for only 7 penalty minutes.

Both teams next see action on June 21-22 at the East Coast Derby Extravaganza (ECE) in Philadelphia, PA. Grand Raggidy plays the Cincinnati Rollergirls and the Ohio Roller Girls. Detroit skates against the Dominion Derby Girls (it’s DDG vs. DDG!) and Atlanta. Additionally, the Mitten Kittens all-Michigan team, featuring players from both Detroit and Grand Raggidy (and perhaps from Killamazoo) will play in a 30 minute challenge bout vs. the two-time Philly home champs, the Philthy Britches.