By Derby News Network, Last updated Wed Sep 1 2010 5:31pm

WFTDA Sanctioned | Banked Track | Local Action

WFTDA Sanctioned

#20 Atlanta 114, Carolina 84 -- Carolina hasn't been in the unofficial top 25 since March of this year, but proved they're still not to be taken lightly as they made a very serious run at #20 Atlanta on Saturday night. They held a small lead with under ten minutes to play in the bout, but a huge 29-0 jam from Atlanta's Demi Gore accounted for nearly the entirety of Atlanta's 30-point margin of victory.

Carolina had the smallest of leads to start the bout at 1-0 for Holly Wanna Crackya over Wheelin' Jennings, but the remainder of the half saw Atlanta narrowly but fairly consistently coming out on the right side of jams. ATL won all the rest of the first 15 minutes' jams to go up 24-13, and even though Carolina answered with back to back wins, they were too small to swing the momentum (1-0 to Kali and 2-0 to Kitty Crowbar).

Atlanta had nearly doubled up Carolina at 31-16 with about 11:30 left in the half, and went on to open up their biggest lead of the half at 55-25 with about a minute left, though Carolina's Celia Fate gave CRG halftime momentum with a 5-0 behind effective blocking from Ms. Anthrope the Mordant. At the half Atlanta led 55-30.

The visitors came out strong in the second half, nickel and diming points off the lead. After about 10 minutes, Carolina closed to 10 points on their biggest jam of the game to that point, a 10-0 to Celia Fate, this time with Kitty Crowbar and DVS playing effective D in a light pack situation. When followed by Holly Wanna Crackya pulling a 9-0 and going right back in for a 10-0 after an ATL timeout, Carolina had gone on a 29-0 run to lead for the first time since the first jam, 72-63.

With about 17 minutes left in the game, Atlanta got their offense back, but the margins remained very narrow, and Carolina stayed ahead for 5 close jams to hold a 75-72 lead with 9:30 to play. Right then, though, Atlanta exploded with the key jam of the game -- Demi Gore jamming to a 29-0 behind a pack of Belle of the Brawl, Switchblade Siouxsie, Alassin Sane and Amelia Scareheart. That made it 101-75 with 7 minutes to play, and Carolina wasn't able to get back within reasonable striking distance in the remaining time.

MVPs were Demi Gore for Atlanta and Ms. Anthrope the Mordant for Carolina. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

Full bout video | Archived textcast

#14 Bay Area 174, #19 Cincinnati 65 -- Though Bay Area and Cincinnati were fairly close on DNN's unofficial Power Rankings in August, results from earlier this month suggested that Bay Area was rapidly improving, as they defeated #7 Rat City and lost to #6 Rose City in very close games. On Saturday night in Richmond, California, Bay Area continued their comeback summer with a triple-digit defeat of visiting Cincy in the final tuneup game before each team attends their respective regional tournaments.  

Bay Area jumped out to a big lead from the start, scoring 26 points in the first three jams on the backs of Burly Bot, Astronaughty and Ivy Profane. In the fourth jam, Cincy's Hannah Ouchocinco finally got her team on the board with a 2-0 over Bay Area's Chantilly Mace.  As Bay Area's Demanda Riot dominated the back, Cincinnati adjusted their play establishing a strong front wall with Sk8r-Kinney leading the defense. Only two Bay Area jammers consistently broke through Cincinnati's great front wall, Burly Bot and Ivy Profane. But Bay Area's wall consistently gobbled up Cincinnati jammers either sending them out of bounds or forcing track cuts.

Penalties hit both teams early and often -- rarely was there a jam when someone wasn't sitting in the box. Cincinnati showed greater skill at killing penalties than Bay Area, but they still couldn't keep the BAD girls from increasing the gap. At the end of the first half Bay Area owned lead jammer status in 12 of the half's 18 jams and had turned that into a 76-28 lead.

Cincinnati came out defiant in the beginning of the second half, going 4-1 over the first three jams, but Burly Bot blew all gains away with a 13-0 jam over Hannah Ouchocinco, who never completed her initial pass. The rate of penalty calls actually increased from that of the first half, so much so that the penalty trackers choked on the flow. In the second to the last jam Nuk'Em fouled out, the only player of the game to do so, and the game's last jam ended with time having run out as Bay Area's Astronaughty and Cincinnati's K Lethal both scored 8 points with a minimum pack. Bay Area increased their lead over Cincinnati in the second half, winning the final 30 minutes 98-37, as the game ended 174-65 with the Bay Area victorious.

At the end of the game Bay Area jammers Burly Bot and Ivy Profane each scored 64 points in 9 jams, 128 of Bay Area's 174 points.  By contrast Cincinnati's highest scoring jammer, Hannah Ouchocinco, scored 20 points in 9 jams. Bay Area was hit with 101 minors and 35 majors, while Cincinnati picked up 81 minors and 25 majors.

In two weeks Cincinnati enters the North Central tournament as the #4 seed, pitted against #5 seed Brewcity, a team they've already beaten this year. On the opening day of the WFTDA Western Regional on October 1st, Bay Area (6th seed in the West) goes against Denver (3rd seed) in what will be the first-ever meeting between those two teams. -- Southbay

Photo set from Mark Nockleby | Photo set from Mike Butler