LADD Tough Cookies Take CA Banked Title

By Busta Armov, Last updated Thu Dec 10 2009 1:23pm

LOS ANGELES, CA - The LA Derby Dolls Tough Cookies led the San Diego Derby Dolls Swarm from the first whistle and through most of the game to take the first co-league Derby Dolls Championship, 107-91.

Video of this game can be viewed on the Derby Dolls justin.tv channel.

Less than a month ago, the SDDD Swarm and LADD Tough Cookies met, both with 3-0 records. While the Cookies came within 6 points with two minutes left in the game, the Swarm prevailed with a final score of 94-79, leaving them undefeated with a 4-0 record and the Cookies with 3-1.  There were six ejections in that game, two of them members of the Swarm.

In an extreme derby rarity, the championship rematch bout began with an immediate Tough Cookies power jam advantage. Penalties enforced at the end of a jam creates a vexing problem for majors committed in the last jam of a game. Anyone who remembers what happened at the end of the first Battle on the Bank knows that the solution used then created more problems than it fixed. For 2009, the Dolls adopted a rule that majors committed in the last jam of the skater's previous game, must be served in the first jam of the next game. This also has its flaws, the most obvious being that it doesn't address the effect in the game in which the offense was committed.

So Bonnie D. Stroir from the Swarm started the game in the box, serving time for a back blocking major committed as a jammer 21 days earlier.

While the Cookies took a 3-0 lead to start the bout, the Swarm stalled the Cookies' momentum, holding them to 3 points for the subsequent three jams. San Diego's Sarkastika (AKA Steely Jan) skated unopposed to an 8-0 to give the Swarm an 8-3 lead. Laguna Beyatch answered with a 10 point jam for the Cookies for a 13-8 lead, and two jams later the Swarm's Kiki Diazz replied back with her own 10 point jam, the first double pass in a non-power jam in the game, putting the Swarm in the lead for the last time in the game, 18-16.

Penalties cost the Swarm heavily in the last three jams of the quarter, ending with three blockers in the box in the last jam (there is a 3 blocker penalty cap). The Cookies defense consistently optimized the defense deficit, neutralizing the disadvantaged Swarm and often leaving a lone Swarm blocker swinging in the breeze as she tried a one to one dogfight with the Cookies jammer. The Cookies came away with a 16 point advantage in the first quarter, finishing with a 9-0 jam for Sniperella to end the period at 34-18.

The Swarm closed the gap midway through the second quarter. The Cookies opened with a 4-0 jam for Stefcon 1, but the Swarm dropped 15 unanswered points immediately afterwards. With the Cookies leading with a much slimmer 38-33 lead, things were looking up for the Swarm.

But the Cookies gained traction and Stefcon turned in a 5-0, followed by another 5-0 power jam by Gori Spelling even with a 2-4 pack disadvantage and Ivanna S. Pankin and Trish The Dish teaming to neutralize Krissy Krash. By the end, the Cookies extended their lead from the 1st quarter by 2 points with an 18 point lead at 55-37 at the half.