#4 Philly Tempers #19 Steel City, 138-60

By Michael Frighten'd, Last updated Sun Feb 13 2011 3:38am

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- On a cold February weekend, Pittsburgh's Steel City (unofficially ranked #19 in the nation by DNN, officially #5 in the East by the WFTDA) traveled down the turnpike to Philadelphia to take on Philly (#4 DNN, #2 East WFTDA) in an extremely fast, very physical bout for the season opener for both teams. Philly owned the first 30 minutes and was solidly in control 76-11 at the half, but Steel City got much more offensive production in a 62-49 second half. All told, it equaled a 138-60 win for Philly.

The first jam began auspiciously for Steel Hurtin' as Hurricane Heather captured lead jammer and scored a textbook 4-0 jam versus Philadelphia captain Persephone. The powerful Liberty Belles reasserted their dominant form quickly, however, capturing lead for the next 7 jams and assuring that the 4-0 Steel City score would be their only lead of the bout.

It was the Liberty Belles' defense that was the story of the first half. Olivia Face controlled 'snot Rocket Science at the front of the pack, enabling Ginger Vitis to tie the score at 4, then, several jams later, to pump the lead up to 31-5 as Castro and Dara Licks kept up a relentless waterfall of blocks on The Crippler and the other Pittsburgh jammers. For several jams near the ten-minute mark, both defenses did fine work as Friction VixXxen for Pittsburgh and Castro for Philly controlled their opposing jammers. Lead jams came late and few points were scored. 'snot Rocket Science got an out-of-play call on the relentless Olivia Face to escape the pack at the midpoint of the first half and bring the score to 31-8, Liberty Belles.

But the momentum was short-lived as what had been a fairly penalty-free, though very physical bout, finally resulted in the first powerjam and Gloria Grindem took the opportunity to open up the lead for Philadelphia to 54-8 with 14 points, followed by 9 from Elle Viento with Dara Licks performing terrific one-on-one blocking of Hurricane Heather. Steel City could only scrape out 3 more points in the half, which closed 76-11 in Philadelphia's favor.

Instead of curling up, however, Steel City came out in the second half with a renewed fire -- though the Philly lead got larger before it began to shrink, ballooning to 95-19 a few jams in. 'snot Rocket Science returned to the jam line and Pittsburgh was able to implement a slow-pack strategy, drawing jammer and blocker penalties and opening enough gaps for their jammer to get 12 back. Then, two jams later, Friction VixXxen caught Persephone just before she could capture lead, allowing 'snot Rocket Science to score 8 more to finish a 20-0 Pittsburgh run. As the midpoint of the second half ticked by, Philadelphia led 98-41.

The hard-hitting Philadelphia blockers reasserted themselves, driving Pittsburgh's jammers out-of-bounds while, sometimes with the heads-up help of a teammate's pull on a jersey, consistently staying in-bounds themselves. Euro Thrash delivered multiple hits on 'snot Rocket Science while Castro and Fully Automatic teamed up on Hurricane Heather as the Liberty Belles came back with 23 of their own from Shenita Stretcher and Gloria Grindem. With Philly up 121-41 and less than a quarter of play left, the Steel City comeback hopes were dashed. The final few jams saw some looser play as the teams traded points and penalties back and forth until the final whistle signaled the 138-60 victory for Philly.