By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Sun Oct 10 2010 9:43pm

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Sunday

Championship: 3SC Kansas City 157, 1SC Texas 127 -- Although this bout featured the same two teams that had played in last year's final game, this one was much different. Featuring multiple lead changes, a huge mid-game comeback, a late-game expulsion and a stirring huge game-winning jam from one of the early heroes of roller derby, the game saw heavily favored Texas going down to the 3 seed Kansas City.

Texas was up 10-0 before Hall Balls took Kansas City's first lead jammer status of the game on the 5th jam, and picked up an 8-0 as Annie Maul, Bruz-Her and Damsel of D'Tension smothered Olivia Shootin' John. With the score 10-8, Texas jammer Bloody Mary got boxed on a major track cut and DeMentia picked up a 10-0 to give Kansas City the lead at 18-10 about 9 minutes into the game.

Texas took it back immediately with Luce Bandit picking up a 9-0, and Bloody Mary added two more to follow up. Texas called their first timeout here at 19:42. Kansas City tied the game up again at 21, and then got a break when Bloody Mary got boxed again as the Texas jammer after picking up a few points. Annie Maul, Red Ripper, Evolution and Bruz Her dragged the pack to a crawl, and emerging KC jammer Case Closed got a 15-7 powerjam win to put Kansas City in the lead, 36-28.

With about 11 minutes left to go in the half, Kansas City was still up 40-37, but lost the lead when Bloody Mary got out of the pack first without lead. Hall Balls was declared lead jammer while Bloody Mary was on her first scoring pass, but didn't realize it for a few critical seconds; Mary got all 4 points before KCRW got the jam called off. As the half entered its final 10 minutes, Texas took the lead back again 41-40.

With the help of some extremely effective blocking from heavily used Bruz-Her, though, Kansas City soon started a run of 6 lead jammer calls in a row and slowly clawed their way to a halftime lead. A 2-0 for Hall Balls and back to back 4-0 jams for Track Rat and Kelley Young had KCRW ahead by a point, 50-49, with about 4 minutes to go, and they continued to keep Texas off the board to extend their lead to 64-49 at the half.

As the second half opened, it seemed that Kansas City might be on their way to an unexpected rout. 5 minutes into the half, it was 69-51 Kansas City when Kelley Young was boxed on a major track cut, but Texas could not find a way to get Olivia Shootin John through her first scoring pass as Bruz Her and Annie Maul were all over her. Eventually Young was sprung from the box and managed to win the jam 9-3 even though she'd spent half of it sitting in the box. On the following jam, Kansas City took complete advantage of Texas sending almost all their players to the box -- for a short period of time, only Luce Bandit was out there as a Texas blocker. That powerjam went 19-0 for Kansas City.

With about 19 minutes to play, Kansas City had their biggest lead of the game at 98-66, but Texas got two big back-to-back powerjams wins followed by a 4-0 that erased all of the Kansas City lead in just 5 minutes. That left it tied at 98-98 with 14:55 on the clock -- and a lengthy referee timeout.

Texas took a short-lived lead at 100-98 following that, but Kansas City's Track Rat soon answered with a 13-0 with the help of the Texas pack missing her approach on a scoring pass and leaving her untouched around the inside. As the clock counted down to 10 minutes, Kansas City held a 111-100 lead.

At the 7 minute mark, Bloody Mary narrowed the Kansas City lead to just one point at 114-113, but also received a box trip at the end of her 4-0. That gave Kelley Young a full minute unopposed -- a minute that included a game expulsion on gross misconduct for Texas blocker Curvette, who made the crowd explode in the bad way by taking Young out with a failed dead-leg attempt that ended up looking more like a kick to the upper thigh. At the end of it all it was 124-117 Kansas City with 5:34 to play -- and that was when things got really weird.

Texas jammer Olivia Shootin' John was sent to the penalty box on her opening pass, but Kansas City jammer DeMentia incorrectly thought the penalty had been assigned to her. Both jammers reached the box, and then neither jammer was sure which one was being directed to return to the track, resulting in both making hesitant moves towards it. When DeMentia finally figured out it was her, she returned to play -- but OSJ was released as well in some apparent confusion between the penalty box officials. The jam played out with OSJ taking 6 points before DeMenta got lead jammer and called it off. When it was all resolved, OSJ's points for that jam stood, but she also had to start the next jam sitting in the box.

That made it a one point game -- 124-123 Kansas City with 3:29 left on the clock and Kelley Young on the jammer line for Kansas City. Young completely tore up the light Texas pack of Belle Star and Crackerjack as the KC pack hung behind them for most passes and allowed Young to bait the Texas blockers out of the engagement zone. Young ran for nearly the full two minutes and called with the biggest jam of the night, a 29-0 shot that changed Texas' chances of winning from extremely good to almost nonexistent at 153-123.

With only about a minute left to play, KCRW's Track Rat took lead jammer status and both she and Sarah Hipel put up 4 points before period time expired and Track Rat called the jam for a thrilling 157-127 upset win and the #1 seed from the South Central region.

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Third place: 5SC Nashville 132, 2SC Atlanta 73 -- This game wasn't really as close as the score suggested, as Nashville absolutely dominated lead jammer status all game long and used impressive positional play and time-killing strategy to smother Atlanta's offense.

There were 35 lead jams for Nashville against just 10 for Atlanta, and Atlanta scored over half of their points on two huge powerjams. With those two jams removed, Atlanta was held to 19 points in the first half and just 6 in the second half.

From the start, Nashville seemed to be more interested in tying up Atlanta jammers positionally than in going for hits, and it repeatedly paid off; Atlanta scored 4 points on the game's third jam, but other than that, they were completely blanked for the first 12 jams of the game. Nashville leaned heavily on Ramb0 Samb0 and Maulin' Monroe on the jammer line, but it was the defensive pack blocking, particularly that of Lady Fury, 5 Scar Jeneral and Union Jack-U-Up, that helped them score. Atlanta was often having so much trouble trying to free their own jammer than they could not focus on the opposing one.

15 minutes into the game, Nashville was sitting on a 47-4 lead when Atlanta finally got a break when Nashville put 2 blockers in their box and Wheelin' Jennings managed to pick up a rare lead jammer call and 10-0 for a new score of 47-14. But Nashville got right back to business with repeated hit and quits that moved the score to 62-15 with six minutes in the half.

Atlanta got their only good run of the game with 4 lead jam calls in a row at the end of the half, including a big 19-0 powerjam win to Merchant of Menace. But they still tied two of those powerjams at 0-0 and were down 62-38 at halftime.

The second half started much like the first as Atlanta only got on the board twice in very low scoring jams -- a 3-1 loss and a 2-0 win. With about 20 minutes to play, it was 98-41 when Nashville suffered a real defensive collapse on a powerjam; Atlanta caught a goat and Nashville blockers were consistently caught out of play while Wheelin' Jennings dropped a 29-0.

That suddenly made the score very interesting at 98-70, but Nashville turned up the defense even more. For the remaining 17 minutes of the game, Nashville shut out Atlanta on 12 of 13 jams -- and those 3 points were only scored at the end of a 10-3 to Ramb0 Samb0 when she waited just a little too long to call off the jam. Meanwhile, Nashville put up 34 and often sped the pack after taking one scoring pass to kill clock time on Atlanta.

The win sends Nashville to the WFTDA Championship tournament in early November.

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5th Place Bout: 8SC No Coast 148, 6SC Tampa Bay 123 -- The hosting league came out of their tournament having significantly improved their standing in the region, upsetting 6 seed Tampa in one of the best games of the weekend.

Little A got Tampa on the board first with a 3-0 over Flash Gloria, and Tampa got a chance to add more when No Coast's Anna Wrexx-It got boxed on a major track cut in jam 2 -- Sixgun Susie followed some good clearing blocking from Frieda Killigan and Lunch Lady for a 13-0 powerjam.

It took No Coast about nine minutes to get on the board with a 3-0 to Flash Gloria -- that jam ended dramatically when Tampa Bay blocker Wild Cherri landed one of her patented backwards-skating hip checks to send Gloria flying. Other than the second-jam 13-0, though, scoring was very low through the beginning at just Tampa 22, No Coast 10 after 15 minutes. Many jams saw both jammers exiting the pack together after some struggling and calling for 0-0.

Flash Gloria got something going for No Coast when she took a hard-fought 4-0 with about ten minutes left in the first half to get her team within striking distance at 22-18. Tampa delivered an impressive penalty kill to hold Kobra Kai to just 5 points on the following jam, but it did get No Coast in front by a point at 23-22. Two jams later, No Coast finally popped a big powerjam with the help of both The Bone Setter and ThickaThanASnicka in the pack -- Anna Wrexx-It took her first jam since her mid-half injury for a 13-0 as Sixgun Susie was boxed. No Coast had the largest lead of the game 38-22, and increased it to 51-34 by the end of the half.

Tampa Bay almost erased the lead in the opening two jams by scoring 16 as Flash Gloria was boxed twice, but during the second jam ThickaThanASnicka impressively tricked Tampa's jammer Sixgun Susie into a track cut. Flash Gloria managed to pick up two scoring passes out of the box, getting the second one literally as jam time expired. After it was all over, No Coast had escaped a rough penalty situation still holding a 61-50 lead.

No Coast pushed the lead to 82-50 with about 22 minutes left before Tampa Bay's Ram'Em Noodle took advantage of piles of No Coast players in the box. That went 19-0 and made it 82-69; Little A followed with 2 to make it 82-71.

Bash 'em Up Barbie, in a rare jam for Tampa to follow up, made a very costly error that stopped all of Tampa's momentum there. She was declared lead jammer over Flash Gloria but was unable to escape the pack on her opening pass. Gloria got out first and lapped Barbie with Tampa's bench imploring her to call off the jam -- and then Barbie got boxed on a major before realizing she was lead. That turned a potential 0-0 into a big 15-0 for No Coast, and they were up 97-71 with about 15 minutes left to play.

A lengthy series of powerjams on both teams had the momentum switching wildly for the next few jams, ending with No Coast still hanging on to a 15 point lead at 117-102 with 6:45 to play. The teams then traded jam wins with Tampa Bay's Little A getting the better one, putting the score at 121-110 No Coast with 4:19 to play -- but Flash Gloria landed a critical 14-0 jam with the help of Thicka, Kelly Ripa-Niplov and Sylvia Bullet smothering Sixgun Susie.

That made it 135-110 and No Coast got lead jammer on the next two jams, keeping Tampa Bay from being able to narrow the gap. Although a too-early jam call from Flash Gloria in the second-to-last jam allowed Tampa Bay to call timeout and attempt a Hail Mary last jam to make up a 27 point deficit, but the magic wouldn't happen for them, and the local No Coast fans got a chance to celebrate the home team jumping 3 spaces over their original seeding to land in 5th place.

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7th place: 7SC Houston 150, 4SC Dallas 69 -- Dallas came into the weekend seeming like they had a decent chance of finishing in the top three and going on to the WFTDA Championships, but instead a disappointing weekend for the Dallas crew saw them going 1-3 and ending up in 8th place behind an improving team from Houston.

Houston dominated lead jammer status in the first half, taking it 13 times to 7 times for Dallas. After a low-scoring five jams that had Houston narrowly up 11-5, there was some big-time defense from Houston's Rebel Ann and Copperhead on Dallas jammer Hot 4 Teacher that allowed Wicked Sweet to lap her twice in the course of the first big jam of the game, a Houston 12-0. Three jams later, though, a jammer rematch had Dallas' Mona Bruiser, Juicy J and Anita Riot taking turns hammering Wicked Sweet to allow a 11-0 for Teacher and a new score of 29-16 Houston.

As had been the case in Dallas' previous game against Tampa Bay, they got hampered by mild injuries to important jammers. With about 12 minutes in the half, The 12th jam had Hot 4 Teacher attempting a star pass but getting caught in an awkward pileup -- the jam was called on injury and Teacher didn't jam again for the remainder of the half (though she'd come back for the second).

Dallas got as close as 39-36 with 8 minutes in the half, but Houston pulled away right before losing the lead. Dallas lost another jammer momentarily late in the half when Roxie La Roo landed hard and was shaken up when her helmet bounced off the concrete -- though, like Teacher, she was back in the second. At the half, Houston had a 21 point lead at 64-43.

The first ten minutes of the second half saw an avalanche of jammer penalties on both teams, but Houston got the better of it. Dallas got a powerjam for Anita Riot on the opening jam of the second half, but she ended it in the box after picking up a 10-3 for Dallas to make the score 67-53. Brand Aid erased all of those gains with a Houston 13-3 on the followup, and then both Houston jammer Jekyll and Heidi and Dallas jammer Rink Panther were boxed on the third jam of the half. Rink Panther, though, went in a second time during that same jam, and Houston pushed their lead to 90-56 on that 10-0 jam.

Houston didn't really land any big jams, but consistent lead jam calls and small-margin wins meant that they'd keep extending that lead. With about 7 minutes left in the game, Dallas was on the ropes, trailing 123-66. A powerjam from Houston's Mistilla on a very light Dallas pack of Mona Bruiser and Hollywood Hit'cha was the nail in the coffin -- Mistilla only picked up 5 points, but ran out the full 2 minutes to kill precious clock time for Dallas. Five minutes later, Houston closed a big 81 point victory at 150-69.

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9th place: 9SC Hard Knox 165, 10SC Memphis 124 -- There were no surprises by either team in this tournament, as they finished right as their seeding predicted at 9th and 10th.

The story of this one was mostly Memphis delivering big bursts of points in between lengthy scoring droughts. Hard Knox came out very strong with a little help from Memphis jammer Lil Cinner, who managed to get boxed twice in the very first jam. That allowed Hard Knox' Drop Dead Gorgeous to drop 13-4 to start off followed by a 10-0 for Goblynn. After five jams, Memphis hadn't scored again and was looking at a 36-4 hole.

Fortunately, right then was when they got their first point explosion on top of jammer penalty trouble for Hard Knox. In Unsweet T's only jam of the game for Hard Knox, she got herself sent to the box, and the following jam had Drop Dead Gorgeous doing the same. That turned into 15-0 and 10-0 jams for Memphis, and they were suddenly right back in it at 36-29. The game stayed at about that point margin until there were about 6 minutes left in the half, with Hard Knox up 58-47. Memphis hit another scoreless patch as Hard Knox blocker Knox Villain particularly stepped up her play to frustrate opposing jammer, and Hard Knox went on a 19-1 run over seven quick jams. With the score 77-48, Memphis called timeout to force a last jam in the half, and it paid off big in a 15-0 for Lil' Cinner. At the half Hard Knox was up 77-63.

The halftime break didn't seem to hamper Memphis' momentum at all -- Lil' Cinner was right back to score the biggest Memphis jam of the game with a big 19-0 powerjam over a very strung out Hard Knox pack. That jam marked Memphis' first and only lead of the game at 82-77. Drop Dead Gorgeous made up for a lot of her penalty on the following jam, though, getting Hard Knox back up on top with a 13-3 jam to make it 90-85 Hard Knox.

The following sequence would be the game turner. After scoring a 2-0, Memphis was shut out for four jams, the last of which had Memphis jammer Rolls Royce hitting the penalty box and Hard Knox jammer landing an immense 24-0 to give Hard Knox plenty of daylight at 123-87 with about 16 minutes left in the game. Memphis managed to win the next couple of jams and get within 32 points at 131-99, but then suffered their longest scoring blackout just shy of the century mark. After six scoreless jams, the score was 156-99 for Hard Knox with only four minutes left, and Hard Knox cruised through the last three jams to win 165-124.

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