ECDX: (19) Montreal Stuns (14) Charm City, 153-131
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Photo: Dave Wood.
FEASTERVILLE, PA -- In a key East Region matchup on Saturday night, a Montreal team looking much sharper and more disciplined than the one that had lost badly to Texas on Friday night dropped the biggest regional upset of the year by taking out Charm City (14 DNN, 3E WFTDA) in a 153-131 thriller. Montreal is currently ranked 6th in the WFTDA East but has now defeated the region's #4 and #3 teams in June, giving them a very strong case for their highest playoff seeding ever when the next WFTDA rankings come out.
The last two times Charm City had played Montreal, Charm had won by over a hundred points, and at first, it looked like this one would go similarly. Charm got three lead calls in a row, but it wasn't until jam four that their effectiveness was reflected on the scoreboard. A botched apex jump at the death of jam three sent Greta Bobo to the box, letting Allie B Back put up a 13-0 jam to make it 16-0.
Apocalipstick got the better of Holly Gohardly at the front to put up Montreal's first four points of the game in the next jam, before Honey Badger got lead next as Cheese Grater and Bone Machine controlled Crowella to make it 16-7 Charm. Greta Bobo made it three leads in a row, but could only get one point thanks to strong blocking and smart hitting from O'Chit and Uvetta Work in the Charm pack.
Allie B. Back broke Montreal's streak though, taking the score to 20-8 Charm City after ten minutes. I.M. Pain put up two for Charm City before Crowella put up four to stretch Charm's lead to 26-8.
However, the remaining 17 minutes of the half would go much differently. Greta Bobo put up the first natural grand slam of the night in a 9-0 over Allie B Back to take the score to 26-17, and Ti Loup got her first lead jam call in the next jam--but only put up 4 as the jam was whistled dead as IM Pain went down with a skate malfunction on the track. That left the score at 26-22 in Charm's favor after fifteen minutes.
Since the jam had effectively been called for injury, Crowella D Vil found herself in the box serving a penalty as jammer in Pain's stead. That let Apocalipstick jam unopposed, and a big 21-2 jam there left the score at 43-28 in Montreal's favor -- a 35-2 run over three jams. The Montreal lead grew as large as 30 points at 77-47 with 1:40 left in the first half.
Charm City got a power jam to Allie B Back to end the first, but Bone Machine, Lady J and Cheese Grater did a solid job of delaying her pass, keeping the damage to 10-0. At the break, Montreal still led by 20, 77-57.
The teams played perfectly evenly over the first 9 minutes of the second half, with the margin still 20 points at 87-67 with 21:30 on the clock. Charm City was doing a slightly better job of picking up lead jammer status, but their jammers still seemed to usually end up finding nothing but walls of neon when they came in for a scoring pass.
Montreal called their first timeout with the score 89-67 and 19:42 on the clock leading into a Montreal power jam and 3-2 pack advantage. I.M. Pain and Holly Go Hardly represented the Charm City defense against Lil Mama, Jess Bandit and Chasing Amy for Montreal and Ti-Loup jamming; Ti-Loup blasted through for big points on a 20-0 that gave Montreal their biggest lead of the game at 109-67 with 18 minutes left.
Both Allie B Back and Apocalipstick were boxed on the next jam; the full length jam ended up narrowly going to Charm City's advantage at 8-6. Charm City called their first timeout in a 114-75 hole with 15:53 left to play.
That timeout set up a big Charm City rally -- and not a moment too soon. They ran I.M. Pain and Allie B. Back in a one-two rotation for the next eight jams. They went 20-0, 5-0, 9-0 and 1-0 to make it 114-110 with 9 minutes to go.
Montreal finally broke a streak of 5 lead jammer calls in a row for Charm City with Apocalipstick getting a 4-0 to give Montreal a bit more daylight; Honey Badger took 7-0 in the process of lapping Pain to put Montreal ahead 126-110 with 6:12 to play.
Lil Mama and Jess Bandit were all over Allie B Back on the next jam, and the Charm City defense lost track of Ti-Loup on a critical pass as Montreal was clearly willing to trade clock time for points. That jam was disastrous for Charm City, as it went 23-4 Montreal before Allie was sent to the box late in the jam on an odd illegal procedure. With the score 149-114 and 4:16 on the clock as Allie sat in the penalty box during Charm City's second timeout, the heavily pro-Montreal crowd was sensing that Montreal was just a couple of solid jams away from the upset.
But as it turned out, Allie's penalty ended up being rescinded, allowing Pain to take the star, take lead and score 7-0 to make it 149-121. Charm next lost a key opportunity when Free Radical wiped out early in her scoring pass and Montreal's jammer snuck up the inside before the call-off. The 4-3 jam to Montreal left the score 153-124 with 1:20 to play; I.M. Pain got a lead jam call next but had to settle for a quick 3-0.
With 40 seconds on the clock following an apparently unsuccessful challenge from Montreal, Montreal held a strong but not quite comfortable advantage with a 26 point lead, 153-127. The next jam would start with just 1 blocker on the track for each team; Pain got lead again, snatched 4-0 and called it off with 10 seconds remaining to set up a final jam with the score 153-131.
Pain went back to the line for the last frame against Greta Bobo for Montreal, but with Holden Grudges the only Charm City blocker on the floor at the beginning of the jam against Lil Mama and Mange Moi El Cul for Montreal, the situation was highly advantageous for Montreal. Bobo took lead up the outside very quickly and only had to wait until the clock expired to call it off and blow up the crowd, who quickly surrounded the track to congratulate Montreal on a region-rocking upset win, 153-131.
Bout stats via wftda.com.
