#14 Montreal Squeaks Past Houston, 126-121

By Sunnie, Last updated Thu Aug 4 2011 7:00am

HOUSTON, TX -- Houston Roller Derby’s HaRD Knocks Hosted Montreal’s New Skids on the Block in a nail biter on Saturday. Every jam was packed with heavy defense and determined offense in what was a very evenly matched bout, but in the end Montreal pulled it out in a 126-121 final.

Beverly Kills of HRD lined up against NSotB’s Iron Wench on the first jam. Kills fought her way through the pack to score four points and call off the jam before Iron could sneak in any points. Montreal came back in jam three when Iron Wench scored a 10 point jam while the Houston jammer spent time in the box. Montreal had the lead with a 10-4 advantage after three.

Montreal maintained their lead over Houston until the 14th jam when Brand Aid obtained lead jammer status and scored 21 points before an injury on the track stopped the jam; that big score put Houston up 55-47, and they'd maintain that lead almost until the end of the bout. Three jams later, Houston's Wicked Sweet fought her way to lead jammer status and scored four grand slams before the jam clock ran out giving the HaRD Knocks a crowd-pleasing advantage at 79-51. Houston's Mistilla closed out the half in the 18th jam by obtaining the lead, scoring three points and calling off the jam before Georgia W. Tush could score any points. The half ended with HRD in the lead 82-51.

The second half of the bout began with Kills and Wench on the jammer line once again. Iron Wench took the lead, scored two points, and called off the jam just as Kills was approaching the pack for her scoring pass. Montreal picked away at Houston’s lead with small scoring passes until the fifth jam when Iron Wench scored two grand slams. The New Skids had closed the gap to 12 points, trailing 88-72.

Georgia W. Tush further closed the gap in the seventh jam with an 11 point jam that made it 88-83 Houston, but jam 11 saw HRD’s Wicked Sweet take the lead and score an identical 11 points before calling it off to keep Tush from making her scoring pass. HRD maintained their slim lead at 102-87. Montreal was able to score small increments until the 18th jam when Iron Wench took advantage of Houston’s jammer in the box and scored 14 points before the jam clock ran out, leaving Montreal down by 10 at 121-111.

The 19th jam was a pivotal moment for the New Skids on the Block. With the HaRD Knocks jammer still in the box, Georgia W. Tush took advantage of the situation and scored three grand slams before calling off the jam. Montreal had finally retaken the lead at 126-121, but at the end of the jam there were still 2 seconds left on the game clock and HRD called a timeout in time to force one more jam.  Iron Wench and Beverly Kills faced off one last time, but it did HRD no good as Iron Wench broke through the pack first and called off the final jam at 0-0 immediately after Kills made it out of the pack, icing the win. The final score was Montreal 126, Houston 121.

Top jammers for Montreal were Iron Wench with 79 points and Georgia W. Tush with 39 points. Top blockers were Nameless Whorror, Lil Mama, Cheese Grater, and Jess Bandit. High scoring jammers for Houston were Brand Aid with 51 points, Wicked Sweet with 33 points and Beverly Kills with 27 points. Rebel Ann was the top blocker with Windigo and Goldie Blocks as fellow heavy hitters.