#11 Boston Buries #18 Pikes Peak, 298-22

By Ruby Khan, Last updated Thu Sep 24 2009 1:44am

BOSTON, MA -- The Boston Massacre wrapped up their home season on Saturday with a huge win, sending the visiting Pikes Peak Derby Dames home with a final score of 298-22.

With Boston currently ranked #11 in the nation by DNN and Pikes Peak not very far away at  #18, the Massacre felt confident, having defeated most of the 12-17 teams by solid margins this year (they beat #17 Rocky Mountain by 38 points in May, #15 Duke City by 48 and #12 Bay Area by 71 in July, and #13 Carolina by 72 last Friday). That the margin of victory was so wide perhaps came as a surprise to both teams.

The timing of the bout was not ideal for Pikes Peak, who recently lost three top players to the nearby Rocky Mountain Rollergirls. At least five of the Colorado Springs skaters were debuting in their first interleague bout. Meanwhile, this was the Massacre’s 17th bout of the season with a team charter that has remained unchanged all year. It was clear they were still heavily amped from their third-place performance at Eastern regionals last weekend.

From the moment that Claire D. Way put up 19 points in the first two jams, despite spending a minute of that time in the penalty box, Boston’s high scoring never let up. Shellby Shattered—long one of Boston’s most effective defensive blockers—had a stellar night as an offensive blocker and earned her team’s MVP award. With Claire and Krushpuppy turning in 57 and 58 points, respectively, in the first half alone, Boston was well on its way to a blowout.

Pikes Peak blockers turned in their share of hard check blocks and forceful leans, but struggled to coordinate follow-up hits or recycle. At the front of the pack Count Smacula and The Swiss Missile were tenacious in fighting back Boston jammers, but Pikes Peak’s forward-focused strategy left them susceptible to 20-foot warnings. This also meant that Boston jammers were often at top speed approaching the pack on the initial pass, as the Massacre’s offense swarmed Pikes Peak’s lone back blocker.
On later passes with a more decentralized pack, Pikes Peak MVP Fannie Fister proved herself quite capable of leaning opposing blockers clear across the track and really opening up the middle of the pack for her jammers.

Pikes Peak sent nine skaters in their 14-woman rotation to the jam line. Pepper Slay, Kamilla Bloodspilla, and The Swiss Missile all added muscle and jammer-on-jammer contact to the mix. Hawaiian Punch—skating in her first interleague bout—was one of the fastest women on the track and was effective in forcing a few low scorng jams by quickly making up track distance between her and a Boston lead jammer.

Despite the lopsided score, Pikes Peak skated hard through obvious frustration and a crowd hell-bent on seeing the Massacre break 300 points, showing the kind of perseverance that earns much respect from Boston sports fans.

Pikes Peak enters the Western regional tournament seeded 7th and will take on 10th seed Angel City in the first round on October 2. The Massacre have earned a brief respite from an intense bouting schedule before digging in to prepare for their first-round bout against North Central #2 seed Madison at Nationals on November 13.