#16 Steel City Thumps Bleeding Heartland, 295-107
PITTSBURGH, PA -- Pittsburgh's Steel City (#16 DNN, #4 East WFTDA) opened their 2012 season with a high-scoring win at home over Bloomington, Indiana's Bleeding Heartland (#13 North Central WFTDA), 295-107. Bleeding Heartland moved to 1-2 on the year with the loss.
The first jam went scoreless, but it wasn't long before Steel City took control of the scoreboard. Steel City's Hurricane Heather cracked the goose eggs with 12 points in the second jam as her blocker Bonecrusher continually recycled opposing jammer Nuck L. Sammie, leading a two-minute shutout on Bleeding Heartland.
BHRG's Mostly Harmless and Bobbi McGuillotine showed the Shocker that they can play tough defense too as Kaka Caliente got Bleeding Heartland on the board with 3 in the next jam. The rough play began to fill up the penalty boxes early and often as Steel Hurtin' opened up a commanding lead. 'snot rocket science slashed through the diminishing packs for 8. Then back-and-forth jammer forearm calls netted a 14-1 powerjam win to Mean Burrito over Shock 'n Roll, following big clearing blocks from Athena. Hurricane Heather lapped the lightened pack four times for 19 more, and with a quarter of the bout in the books, Steel City led 55-12.
Four minors to Nuck L. Sammie set the Shocker up with a powerjam, albeit at gut-wrenching speeds, which the speedy jammer toughed out for 20 points. 'snot rocket science's sudden stops and spurts of acceleration threw off the timing of the Bleeding Heartland blockers and drew acclaim from the crowd along with 9 more points and Steel Hurtin' led 84-13.
After adding on another 5, Mean Burrito headed to the box and Kaka Caliente showed that BHRG wasn't about to roll over, fighting her way for 9 through a strong front wall of Cheeseburger, Madame Abagael and Maestro, making a return from a tough injury. Nuck L. Sammie then continued the powerjam for 10 more as Mean Burrito returned to the track only to go right back to the sin bin after a back block.
However, BHRG's inability to stop big jams from Steel City kept deepening the hole. Bobbi McGuillotine was unable to continue the run as she was confounded by a spinning block from 'snot rocket science -- meanwhile, Mean Burrito skated with renewed momentum to rack up another 16. Late in the half, Steel City's blockers kept Uh Huh Hurricane in the goat pen for most of a two-minute jam while the Shocker rattled off 26 more points. The half whistle blew ending the parade of big hits and small packs with the score 140-45.
The second half continued much as the first as good individual defensive performances from the Flatliners, such as Mostly Harmless's good work on Hurricane Heather in the initial jam of the half, wound up still resulting in an increase in Steel City's lead as Hurricane Heather's mere 8 were balanced against a shutout of Kaka Caliente by the Steel City pack. Five jams in, after a 10-4 Hurricane Heather-Kaka Caliente matchup, the packs finally seemed to be at full strength and the score was 166-54.
A 17-0 and 18-4 for Mean Burrito over the next six minutes helped push the lead to 225-75 with 15 minutes left. Though BHRG kept fighting, they were hit with two more huge jams in the waning moments -- a 25-pointer from the Shocker and a 21 point run from 'snot rocket science. In the final jam of the night Nuck L. Sammie got 10 back on a powerjam to get Bleeding Heartland over the century mark, making the final score 295-107.
Steel City plays Naptown (#14 DNN, #3NC WFTDA) on April 7; Bleeding Heartland has a chance to bounce back and buttress their regional standing fairly soon, as they play Grand Raggidy (#11NC) on March 31.
