FEASTERVILLE, PA -- In a bout that was all about power plays, #13 Charm City steamrolled #24 Houston on Saturday afternoon, taking advantage of early Houston penalties to explode to a big early lead and then consistently putting up lopsided shutout jams to break the scoreboard on the Texans.
In the opening jam, Charm City switched up their normal leadoff strategy by starting with their most powerful jammer, Joy Collison, and it paid off -- when opposing jammer Death By Chocolate very quickly went to the penalty box, Joy rocketed around for three grand slams in a full-length 15-0 jam. Next up, Mistilla went to the line against Charm City's Rosie the Rioter, and it was practically an instant replay -- Mistilla found herself in the sin bin on the opening lap, Rosie the Rioter took the full two minutes in putting up a 10-0, and Houston was immediately in serious trouble, looking up from a 25-0 hole after just two jams.
After a 2-1 between Charm City's Dolly Rocket and a freed Mistilla, Houston finally got a jam win when Houston blocker Carmen Geddit hampered Charm City's Flo Shizzle first scoring pass long enough for Savage Rose to get a grand slam in the course of a 9-4 win, and the score went to 31-10 for the Baltimore crew. But that jam would be the only bright point for Houston until very late in the half, as Charm City consistently grabbed lead jammer status and small-margin wins -- except on the occasions where the Houston jammers went to the box, and Charm would run up double-digit wins that put the game out of reach early.
With the score 61-23 and about 11 minutes to play in the half, Houston jammer Savage Rose headed to the box and that resulted in a 13-3 for Joy Collision and a 10-0 for Rosie the Rioter on the subsequent jam, moving the score to 84-26. Charm pushed it to 91-27 with 4:20 left to play, but Houston had their best sequence of the bout as the half ended, keeping the Baltimore girls from breaking 100 at the half with a 4-2 for Goldie Bloxx over Dolly Rocket and a 4-0 for The Prosecutor over Flo Shizzle. At the break the score was 93-35 Charm City.
The second half saw many more opportunities for power plays as Houston jammers warmed the penalty box, and that led to many more lopsided jam wins for Charm City -- a 14-0 for Pistol Whip over Death By Chocolate (with DBC yet again in the box), a 19-0 for Lady Quebeaum over a penalized Prosecutor (marked by Joy Collision and Holly Go Hardly laying some excellent offensive blocks for LQ), a 15-0 for Dolly Rocket over the penalized Savage Rose, a 15-0 for Flo Shizzle over The Prosecutor, and a game-ending 17-0 for Flo Shizzle over GoldieBloxx.
Flo Shizzle put up a career high of 66 points to lead Charm City scoring, while Mistilla led Houston with 19 points.
