Boston Glides Past Bay Area, 129-58

By Killer Vee, Last updated Thu Aug 13 2009 6:06pm

This article is reposted with permission from Veronica La Rosa's original Examiner article.

LAS VEGAS, NV --The Boston Derby Dames all-star travel team, The Boston Massacre, truly lived up to their name last weekend. On July 31st, they took on the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls at the Las Vegas Sports Center and Boston skated away with a monstrous 129 - 58 win.

Though the two teams had never met each other in a bout before, they were both officially ranked #5 in their respective regions by the WFTDA. Although many in the audience expected a close game, the tone was set for a slaughter in the very first jam when Boston jammer Claire D. Way scored 14 points while B.A.D.'s jammer Sassy Slayher scored just three. By the sixth jam, Boston held a commanding 47 - 9 lead. Last year, the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls famously pulled themselves out of a 54 - 9 hole against the Rat City Roller Girls to bring the score to a much closer 93 - 88 loss. However, such a comeback was not in the cards for the Northern California team on Saturday night. At halftime, Boston had the lead with a 75 - 22 and by the end of the night, they took home the win.          

Both teams had a lot of difficulty navigating the particularly slippery concrete floor at the Las Vegas Sports Center. Although the floor was coated with a mixture of sugar and water to create more traction, skaters from both teams had to borrow stickier wheels from nearby vendors for the game. At times, the slick floor looked downright dangerous. There were more than a few times where a jam was called because a player had been taken down and was slow to get up.

However, Boston seemed to have a slight advantage adapting, perhaps in part due to playing on a polished concrete floor at home in the Shriners' Auditiorium. They did seem to have more control on the tricky surface.

One thing that really hampered the Bay Area offense was their plethora of jammer majors. B.A.D. jammers were sent to the box no less than nine times throughout the game while Boston only had three jammer trips to the box.  Also hurting the team were the blocker penalties. In the very first jam, every B.A.D. player on the track went to the penalty box except for one, and that trend continued throughout the night. Liza Machete was ejected before the end of the first period for too many trips to the penalty box.

Boston, on the other hand, played a very deliberate and at times devious strategy. They often engaged in jammer on jammer defense as well as slowing the packs down to almost a complete stop. More than once, a chorus of audience boos rang out from the bleachers as the crowd tried to spur a more aggressive strategy -- however, with Boston's gameplan working very effectively, they had little impetus to change it.

The Boston Massacre employed four jammers to guarantee their victory. Most of the scoring was done by Sugar Hits (41 points in 12 jams), KrushPuppy (46 points in 10 jams), and Claire D. Way (37 points in 10 jams). Maura Buse stepped on to the jammer line four times. Although she received lead jammer status three times of her four attempts, she earned herself only five points.

Similarly, the B.A.D. Girls also had three primary scoring jammers; Burly Bot (30 points in 11 jams), Sassy Slayher (12 points in 12 jams), and Nock Nock (11 points in nine jams). Chantilly Mace jammed four times and was awarded five points for her efforts.

These teams are not scheduled to play each other again this season and they are unlikely to meet at Nationals in Philadelphia later this year. Both are in action quite soon, though: on August 8th, Bay Area will be playing Portland's Rose City Rollers in San Francisco. On August 15th, Boston will be taking on the Detroit Derby Girls at home.

Photo: Apron