Homicide Shuts Down Militia In Men's Bout, 190-59

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Sat Nov 21 2009 2:28pm

DENVER, CO -- Baltimore men's team Harm City Homicide only brought 7 players to their Saturday night bout with Tucson's Dry Heat Militia, but the scoreboard didn't reflect the short roster, as Homicide led from the first jam on and soundly defeated the less experienced Militia, 190-59.

Read the play by play from Angus Con and Heather Juska in DNN's archived text boutcast.

Homicide opened with a number of low-margin, single-pass jam wins, leaving the score at a relatively narrow 19-5 favoring Homicide after the first 10 minutes. However, on the bout's 7th jam, new Homicide addition Quad Almighty took the star for the first time, and went to the line unopposed; the Homicide offense blew open some holes for him while locking down on Militia jammer Private Willy upon his exit from the penalty box. The resultant 17-0 jam for Homicide moved the score to 36-5, and the lead would consistently grow for the remainder of the bout.

With 7 minutes to play in the first half, Homicide was starting to run away with it at 67-21, but Homicide jammer Justice Feelgood Marshall picked up a costly fourth minor by way of a false start, and the Militia jammer Pitchit took full advantage of a light Homicide pack for a 15-0, making the total 67-36. Homicide quashed all that momentum in the final 5 minutes of that half, only allowing 3 more points for the Militia while piling up 22 more of their own. At the end of the first half, Homicide enjoyed a solid 50 point lead at 89-39.

The Militia had 10 players against Homicide's 7, but the endurance factor seemed to hit the less experienced Tucson players harder than Baltimore's, as the second half went even more in Homicide's favor. Tucson also had some trouble making contact in the corners with agile jammers Virginia Slim and Justice Feelgood Marshall, who employed some crowd-pleasing aerial evasive maneuvers to escape big swings unscathed. Homicide put 101 points on the board in the second half while allowing just 20, sending them to a 131-point victory at 190-59.

Homicide pack work was keyed by Sin Diesel, who along with Hung Solo and Magnificent Bastard played exclusively as blockers in the short roster; Slim and Justice primarily jammed with a few turns in the pack while Quad Almighty and Gearhead primarily blocked with a few turns as jammers.

For the Militia, Johnny Smokescreen was the primary and most effective jammer, while Fred Nutz consistently gave the Homicide jammers trouble in the back of the pack and was voted MVP for the Militia -- Slim took the honor for Homicide.

The Militia ends their inaugural season 0-2, also having lost to the Dallas Deception in March. Homicide claims their first winning season, with a 4-2 record that includes one 60-minute win, three 40-minute wins, one 40-minute loss, and one 20-minute loss.

In the Denver local teams championship bout that followed, the Shotgun Betties took down the 2008 local champions Bad Apples by a final of 130-109; see the recap for that bout on the Denver Roller Dolls site here.