ECE 2009: Saturday Capsule Recaps
DNN's full live coverage of the 2009 ECE was made possible by sponsors Atom Wheels, Rollercon 2009 and Five on Five Magazine.
Grand Raggidy 107, Fort Wayne 71
GRRG had a 59-26 lead early in the second half, but a big powerjam for FW's RIPtide made it 62-41 and started an FW rally that got them to within single digits at 69-60.
The FWDG comeback was stymied at about the 9-minute mark by back to back jammer penalties on Pushycat -- she successfully called the jam while not lead jammer and got boxed, then returned to the box for another critical minute on a major illegal re-entry. FWDG was down by just 9 at this point, but the two minutes without a jammer increased the deficit to 27 points at 87-60 with 6:57 to go. Fort Wayne ended up with only 11 points in the last 10 minutes, and Grand Raggidy emerged with a 36 point victory.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Connecticut 200, Dominion 72
Dominion held a 10-6 lead after three jams, but Connecticut took over almost entirely after the opening jams. Dominion was nominally still in the bout with about ten minutes left to go in the first half and Connecticut leading 60-21, but Connecticut did not allow another point for the remainder of the half and took a commanding 97-21 lead into the intermission. As an exclamation point on a big victory, Connecticut broke the scoreboard on a last-jam 20-0 romp for their jammer Milla Lowlife, giving CT the biggest point total of the weekend with a 200-72 victory.
With Connecticut previously #11 in the East Region and Dominion #10, Connecticut's overwhelming victory gave them the inside line at the final spot for the Eastern Regional tournament.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Burning River 162, DC 54
The first two minutes were good news for DC as they took a 4-0 lead on the bout's second jam, but that was the end of the good news for a long time. Burning River piled on the shutouts and grand slams for the following 15 minutes and was sitting on a 47-4 lead before DC's Free Radical finally got DC back on the board with a 4-0 over The Killustrator -- but the momentum went right back to the Cleveland team, who held a 93-13 lead at the half. DC's second half was considerably more effective, as the score in the second 30 minutes was 69-41 favoring Burning River, but the final was still a romp for Burning River, 162-54.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Atlanta 139, Montreal 116
An extremely closely matched first half saw Montreal breathing down Atlanta's neck for the entirety of the opening 30. They took a one-point lead at 45-44 with about six minutes left in the half, though it ended with Atlanta ahead 57-50. After three second-half jams, the score was knotted up at 62-62 -- but then Montreal ran into immense penalty trouble, with a ten minute stretch that saw the neon green posse repeatedly losing their jammers to the box and dealing with very lopsided pack situations.
Atlanta turned that into what seemed like a fatal 58-0 run that made the score 120-62 with 14 minutes to play, but when Montreal finally got their penalty situation under control, they made a surprising turnaround, winning the final quarter of the bout by an impressive 54-19. While it cut more than halfway into Atlanta's 58 point lead, the penalty run had been too long for them to recover from, and Atlanta emerged with a 23 point win at 139-116.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Minnesota 87, Brewcity 74
This exciting North Central clash was back and forth from the start, with 4 lead changes in the opening ten minutes leading up to a 15-15 tie. After two more lead switches, Brewcity took a 24-21 lead with 14:20 left in the first half and held it to the eight-minute mark before Minnesota went up 31-27 ... but then it was tied up again on a 4-0 for Brewcity's Rejected Seoul that put it at 31-31. Brewcity blanked Minnesota on the scoreboard for the remainder of the half and held a 45-31 lead at intermission.
Brewcity got their largest lead of the game at 50-31 after the second half's opening jam, but Minnesota got it going soon afterwards. They kept Brewcity blanked while chipping away at the lead until it was 50-44 with about 23 minutes left in the half, and then a huge 12-0 for Minnesota's Misfit Maiden running behind some excellent defensive work from Suzie Smashbox, Honeydew Felon and Scarmen Hellectra gave Minnesota the lead back at 56-50.
While Minnesota did not relinquish that lead for the remainder of the bout, it wasn't for lack of intense play on Brewcity's part. The Milwaukee crew got it as close as three points at Minnesota 61, Brewcity 59 with 15 minutes left on the clock, but Minnesota went on a 13-0 run to open it back up at 74-59 with 9:26 to play. Still Brewcity wouldn't lie down, with Carrie A. Hacksaw taking advantage of a power jam on a 2-2 pack to put up a 10-0 and make it 74-69 in favor of Minnesota.
In the end, though, Brewcity couldn't quite seal the deal. With 8 minutes to play, Minnesota refused Brewcity any more points until Brew picked up 5 on the final jam -- but Minnesota had already racked 10 of their own. Final score was 87-74 for Minnesota.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Kansas City 152, Madison 112
It looked like this bout could go either way throughout the first half, as both teams put up some lopsided jams that quickly erased double-digit leads. Madison had a 10-0 jam to start as KCRW lost their jammer Jade Lightning to the box on her very first pass of the bout, but KCRW's jammer Hall Balls answered that on the following jam when Madison jammer Darling Nikki was boxed and Kansas City ran up a 15-0. The lead remained in Kansas City hands till it reached 32-19, and then yet another power jam went Madison's way as Jewels of Denile dropped a big 17-0 and made it Madison 36, Kansas City 32 with less than ten minutes gone in the game.
Kansas City retook the lead at 50-47 with ten minutes left in the half, and started to pull away in the time remaining, holding a 19 point lead at 82-63. For the majority of the second half, the KCRW lead would bounce between 15 and 25 points as Madison didn't let them get out of striking range, but remained incapable of narrowing the score to single digits. Madison's last big chance came with about 7 minutes left to play and a power jam for Jewels of Denile while Kansas City held a 129-95 lead -- but they could only turn it into a 5-2 margin, and with under 5 to play, the 31 point gap was just too much to make up. KCRW added some insurance points in the final jams to come away with a 40 point win, 152-112.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Carolina 82, Boston 81
See DNN's feature recap here.
Windy City 127, Cincinnati 54
Big underdogs Cincinnati jumped out to a surprising 20-8 lead after about 12 minutes of this one, but a low-scoring bout slowly and inexorably turned to heavily favored Windy City's advantage. The Chicago girls used a double grand-slam from Varla Vendetta and a single slam from Beth Amphetamine to take the lead 23-20 with about 12 minutes left in the half, and continued to push the lead to 46-31 at the half.
Windy City came out of the intermission on fire, though, putting the game all but out of reach early with a 35-5 run that climaxed with a big 20-0 power jam for the speedy Varla Vendetta and put the score at Windy City 81, Cincy 35. To Cincinnati's credit, they were able to keep the margin pretty much even after that opening strike by Windy ... but they could not narrow it. With about three minutes to play, though, and the score 102-54, Windy City's Varla Vendetta dropped her second 20 point power-jam of the bout, and Beth Amphetamine followed up with a 5-0 closer to pad Windy City's win to 73 points at 127-54.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Charm City 141, Detroit 94
Charm City had a lot more opening luck than they'd had in their nightmarish start against Rat City on Friday, although it was tight for awhile before the Baltimore girls finally started opening up some daylight. With about 15 minutes gone in the game, it was tied up at 23-23, but Charm City's signature slow, heavy-hitting packs eventually started to make the difference. They got a particularly big opportunity when they opened up the lead to 62-32 and then were handed a power jam for star Joy Collision, who dropped a 9-0 and extended the lead to 71-36 Charm City with only about three minutes left in the half. However, Detroit answered that and more with their own powerjam, where Sista Slitya gave her team a much needed 16-0, ending the half at 74-52 favoring Charm City.
Detroit could not get the traction they needed in the second half, with the margin hovering around 20 to 25 points until reaching 104-82 with about 12 minutes to play. Detroit needed a momentum-swinging jam with time ticking away, but Charm City tightened their grip as jammer Pistol Whip took advantage of a 3-2 pack and trucked for a 17-0 as Charm's Dolly Rocket was all over Detroit jammer Kat Von D'estroya, making it 119-82. That margin would remain more or less the same over the final ten minutes, and Charm City improved their record over their inter-regional rivals to 2-1 with a 141-94 victory.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Philly 123, Rat City 35
The hosting Liberty Belles put on a spectacular defensive performance in this one, keeping Rat City to what was by far their lowest point total in their long history. Much like Philly's April bout against Carolina, they repeatedly took 4-0 and 5-0 scores, rarely dropping big jams on their opponents but slowly piling up points while keeping their challengers blanked more often than not.
The margin was 41-14 with about ten minutes to play in the half, still doable for the explosive offense of Rat City, but the final ten minutes reinforced Philly's defensive dominance, as they put up 27 points to just 5 for Rat City and ended the half at 68-19 Philly. The second half was practically a re-run of the first, as Philly put up slightly fewer points with 55, but also held Rat City to slightly fewer with 16 -- and Philly pleased their hometown fans with a dominating 88 point win, 123-35.
See bout video and read the play-by-play in the archived boutcast here.
Photos: Craig Lammes, Paul Miles, Jason Betchel, Akira Takahashi
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