Recap: Midwest Brewhaha

By Geoffrey Saucer, Last updated Sat May 29 2010 2:17am

MILWAUKEE, WI -- The Midwest Brewhaha offered plenty of small market Midwestern leagues the rare chance to meet and compete with their derby sisters, but it wasn’t just all Midwest teams here. From Everett, Washington to Tampa, Florida, and even with Hamilton, Ontario’s Hammer City Rollergirls on hand, this was an international event, and Sunday evening featured the pairing of regional rivals #9 Windy City and #11 Madison.

Saturday

Jet City 153, PRG Independence Dolls 87 -- Jet City led from the get-go but only started to pull away mid-way through the first half. Jet City led 70-47 at halftime. A close game became a blow-out in the second half as the penalties piled for the Independence Dolls and Jet City more than doubled their lead.

Arch Rival 115, Tampa Bay 110 -- With three bouts over the weekend, both St. Louis’s Arch Rival Roller Girls All-Stars and Tampa Bay’s Tantrums had their work cut out for them during Brewhaha. Arch Rival’s Artemischief led the scoring charge for her team in the first half and for the lead at intermission, 61-36.

Never quite able to shake Tampa, but still building their lead up to 31 with eleven minutes remaining, Arch Rival saw Tampa surge back on jams from Rojo Grande and Little A to close within six at 106-100 with less than five minutes to go. The gap was only five to begin the bout’s final jam, but Arch Rival’s South City Shiner grabbed lead and called it, preserving their win in a bout that got the Sports Complex buzzing.

Omaha 152, Ohio 96 -- Evenly matched for the first 20 minutes, Omaha managed to break away from the Ohio Roller Girls despite a spirited defense in the closing minutes of the first half for a 69-38 halftime lead. Omaha’s lead remained in the 30’s until both sides had more players in the penalty box than on the track and Hellion grabbed 25 big points for Ohio. Omaha led 103-96 with nine minutes left in the game. Hamstrung by a rash of jammer penalties from this point on, Ohio wouldn’t score again.

Grand Raggidy 160, Hammer City 69 -- Leading 9-0 after the first jam, Grand Raggidy never looked back. Benefitting from a cascade of Hamilton penalties and a 15-0 power jam from ShamPain4U, Grand Raggidy led 70-31 at half. It was the same story in second half, especially for Hammer City’s jammers.

Rockford 115, Mississippi Valley 89 -- Rockford seemingly takes on all the Midwest’s smaller market leagues, but somehow always comes out on the short end of the score. The much more experienced Rage had better luck this time against La Crosse’s Mississippi Valley Mayhem. It was 61-18 at half in favor of Rockford. MVM’s Naughty Lil Psycho led a second half charge for La Crosse that at least allowed them to out score Rockford in the half, 71-54.

Chicago Outfit 159, PRG Independence Dolls 52 -- The Outfit led form the get-go and really blew the score open on 23-0 and 19-4 jams from Sweet Mary Pain. Up 84-35 at half, it was the Outfits defense that stole the show in the second by limiting the Independence Dolls to just 17 additional points.

Sioux Falls 250, Fox Cityz 26 -- In a battle of misplaced “Z”s, no one could have guessed that Sioux Falls, suiting up only nine skaters, would rack up the weekend’s biggest blowout. It was one monster jam after another for the Doll Starz. A couple of Sioux Falls injuries and their short roster prevented them from facing off against Jet City on Sunday.

COMO 180, BCB Battlestars 67 -- Adderoller seemed a perpetual presence on the jammer line for Columbia/Jefferson City, Missouri’s COMO All Stars. She didn’t score all the points for COMO – it just seemed like it – and the Battlestars were treated to a drubbing on their home track.

Jet City 162, Arch Rival 108 -- This one was a tale of two halves. Arch Rival closed out the first half on a 21-point jam from Artemischief and seemed to have the bout in hand. Jet City’s Sierra Fist began the turnaround for her team with a 29-point power jam on stop-pack play in the second jam of the second half, and Jet City entirely dominated the pack to outscore Arch Rival 120-30 in the second half.

Brewcity 153, Burning River 84 -- After squeak-by victories by Brewcity over Burning River at last year’s ECE and the Brawl of America, both teams approached Saturday’s showcase bout with a sense of growing rivalry. With a hometown crowd, the sense of competition was more palpable than it had been for much of the day’s action.

It was a closely contested bout in the first half, with both teams putting together effective offense and defense in spurts. Burning River closed a 19-point deficit to only three points and trailed 66-50 at halftime. Brewcity’s Carrie A. Hacksaw quickly widened the lead for her team with 20 points to begin the second half. After that, the home side exerted control in the pack and built up their score one jam at a time for 87-34 edge in the half and a win that left the crowd looking forward to more action on Sunday.