#5 Gotham Thumps #4 Texas, 125-65

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Sat Jun 28 2008 7:09pm

FEASTERVILLE, PA -- The most anticipated bout of the ECE proved to be one of the most eye-opening, as Texas managed to hang with New York's Gotham Girls for only 15 minutes before succumbing to a tremendously effective defense that sent Texas to the only lopsided loss in their storied history.

It was rather clear from the introductions that the heavily East Coast audience was on the side of the New Yorkers, and they went wild for the opening jam, as Gotham's Suzy Hotrod got lead and a textbook 4-0 over Vicious Van Go-Go to start the show. On the second jam, Gotham jammer Beatrix Slaughter demonstrated her speed -- she was about a half-lap behind Texas jammer Cat Tastrophe, but Slaughter, awarded lead jammer, rapidly closed the gap and made her way through the pack before Cat could, pulling out a 4-2 win for Gotham.

The third jam continued to get the Sportsplex rocking, as Gotham powerhouse blocker Beyonslay leveled Texas' Vicious Van Go-Go with a trademark hip check that allowed Bonnie Thunders to go for an extra scoring pass, pulling a grand slam in the middle of getting a 9-0 that moved the score to a surprising 17-2 after just three jams.

But Texas would crawl back into it -- for awhile. In her first jam of the night, Lady X gave the smaller but still vocal Texas contingent a chance to cheer with a 9-0 over Cheap Skate, who spent a minute in the box. Texas won a few more small-margin jams, and their tireless speedster Rice Rocket tied the game 19-19 on Jam 8, showing some incredible resilience in being able to shrug off a front-of-the-pack hit from Beyonslay that allowed Rice to get lead and a 3-1 win over Beatrix Slaughter.

The next jam, though, was a nightmare for Texas that spelled the beginning of the end. Cat Tastrophe entered the box early in the jam, and while she waited for her freedom, Gotham's Cheap Skate began rolling up grand slam points. When Cat finally got back on the track, she was immediately sent right back into the box on an illegal-reentry major, driving the Texas bench into an uproar -- and driving the point total upwards for Gotham. Cheap Skate closed that one with a 14-0 that all but erased Texas' comeback with 12:08 to play in the half.

Texas was shut out by an increasingly effective defense for five jams in a row, with their jammers having particular trouble finding a way past standout Gotham pivot Kandy Kakes -- even though almost every Texas jammer seemed bigger and stronger than Kakes, she was constantly right in front of them, keeping them from accelerating until the Gotham pack would come back up and swarm the frustrated Texas jammer.

Sweet Sherry Pie was also deadly efficient in the front of the pack for Gotham, and Beyonslay delivered some absolutely crushing hits (one of them delivered on Rice Rocket at 0:38-0:42 of this YouTube clip, higher-res version here) that clearly quickly garnered a lot of respect from both audience members and Texas jammers.

With about 5:45 to play in the half and the score Gotham 46, Texas 19, Texas finally got a much needed advantage when their jammer Desi Cration got lead and had a nearly full-lap lead over Suzy Hotrod, but Desi would fall victim to a cutting track major on her first scoring pass, robbing Texas of the opportunity to cut into the Gotham lead.

Desi was in fact the only Texas jammer to put any points on the board in the last 15 minutes of the first half, and the half ended on a huge 48-7 run for Gotham that left Texas on the wrong end of a 67-26 score at the break.

The second half went remarkably like the first, in that the teams seemed fairly evenly matched until about halfway through. Over the first 17 minutes of the half, Gotham scored 22 points while Texas scored 20. But with Texas down by so much, they could not afford to just trade wins with Gotham.

On the half's 13th jam, with the score Gotham 89, Texas 48, Gotham finally landed the knockout punch that put the game out of reach -- Desi Cration failed to get to the jammer line on time, and Gotham's pack switched smoothly to an all-offense mode that allowed a 15-0 for their jammer Suzy Hotrod in the biggest jam of the bout. That moved the score to 104-48 with 10:31 to play, and it was simply a matter of time until Gotham locked up the victory with a 125-65 win. (The score was initially reported at 125-64, but was officially corrected after the bout's conclusion.)

Stats

Gotham's signature jammer combination of Bonnie Thunders (41 points), Suzy Hotrod (37 points), Cheap Skate (29 points) and Beatrix Slaughter (13 points) was as effective as ever, and Brigitte Barhot, jamming once, put in 5 more points. As well as the jammers played, it seemed like the win, more so than usual, belonged to Gotham's blockers. They consistently shattered Texas attempts at building defense and constantly gave their jammers big holes to aim for.

Texas tried out a wider variety of jammers, but none seemed to have particular success figuring out the Gotham defense. Lady X led with 16 points, captain Bloody Mary added 15, Rice Rocket scored 12, Desi Cration put up 10, Vicious Van Go-Go had 6, Sparkle Plenty had 4, Cat Tastrophe picked up 2, and Lucille Brawl did not score on her one trip to the jammer line.

Photos: Kerry McClain