ECDX: (1) Gotham Handles (2) Rose City

By Lex Talionis, Last updated Sun Jun 24 2012 7:30pm

FEASTERVILLE, PA--Gotham were pushed hard by Rose, but ran out 221-152 victors after an early second-half run of Rose penalties and injuries put the game out of the Portland team's reach.

An injury took Scald Eagle out of the bout very early on, leaving White Flight and Soulfearic Acid to take on the lion's share of the jams for Rose. A serious winding for White Flight meant that JK Rolling had to step up and take the star briefly in the second period before White Flight was able to rejoin the action.

Rose was able to deal with Gotham's 2012 jammer class admirably, shutting down both Claire D Way and Slambda Phage. They forced Gotham to switch back to their long-time jamming partnership of Bonnie Thunders and Suzy Hotrod to make sure of the win at the start of the second half, and at the death when Rose started to mount what would have been an improbable comeback built on penalties to Gotham's newest jammers.

Gotham started the bout taking the back of the pack, but it wasn't enough to stop White Flight getting lead before turn one. She only managed to grab OMG WTF's point before being forced into a call.

Soulfearic Acid made it 2 from 2 lead jam calls, and increased the score to 5-0 Rose. Scald Eagle picked up a bout-ending ankle injury as Bonnie Thunders picked up six points before being majored off on a low block call. The jam was whistled dead after a short delay. White Flight couldn't do any damage on the powerjam thanks to Sexy Slaydie, OMG WTF and ex-Rose blocker Mick Swagger repeatedly blocking and hitting her to the floor. Bonnie Thunders shrugged off a big hit from Mel Mangles to put points on the board and nudge Gotham into a 5 point lead.

When Slamda Phage was sent to the penalty box in the next jam, Soulfearic Acid had trouble with the Gotham defense, but still pushed Rose into a 23-15 lead with 8 minutes gone. White Flight was boxed on the next jam though, allowing Phage come out of the box and restore Gotham's lead 30-23. However, White Flight stole out of the box and picked up five to make it a two-point game.

Bonnie snuffed out any thoughts of a second lead change, though, as she stretched the Gotham lead to 7. A rare rolling start with a 2-2 pack saw White Flight cut the lead to four with a quick 3-0 over Suzy Hotrod as the pack speed noticeably increased. The faster packs seemed to suit Gotham as White Flight found herself stuck behind a high-speed Gotham wall racking up minors. She soon found herself going to the box on a fourth minor following a back block. The score had increased to 50-31 when Phage was boxed herself in that same jam, with White Flight released and grabbing four points at the death.

Donna Matrix and Hyper Lynx held Soulfearic Acid for the better part of a minute on her first scoring pass, but she had no such problems on her next two passes to make it a two-point game. Her fourth pass took a little longer, but it was still enough to push Rose into a 53-52 lead as the jam expired, with 10 minutes left in the period.

White Flight got called on a major forearm after tussling with Bonnie Thunders as Thunders slowed down to try and have her re-absorbed by the pack. It was Rose's turn to exhibit powerful powerjam defense as Mercy held her up, but Bonnie Thunders still put 15 on the board to stretch Gotham's lead. Suzy then made that lead 18.

Claire D Way and Soulfearic Acid traded major penalties and seats in the penalty box in a two-minute jam that left the score 80-57 with four minutes left in the first half.

Suzy Hotrod shrugged off a 3-2 pack disadvantage to take a 4-0 over White Flight and push the lead to 27, mostly thanks to OMG WTF refusing to let White Flight get past her. Rose then pulled a few back next jam after showing off an impressive inside-line assist maneuver for a second time to grab lead jammer. Soulfearic Acid jumped out and was spun round over the infield by her innermost blocker just over the jam line to evade Gotham's jammer-line wall.

Suzy then restored Gotham's 27-point advantage before two four-nothing jams for White Flight and Soulfearic pulled the game back to within 19 as the period clock expired with the scoreboard reading 88-69.

A 3-0 for Bonnie pushed Gotham's lead past 20 at the start of the second half, but Soulfearic Acid showed some great agility on her first scoring passes after Suzy picked up a major cut to whittle Gotham's lead to 12. She then cut the deficit down to 8 despite making a meal of her scoring pass as Rose allowed Gotham to really pick the pack speed up again.

Gotham seemed to have made a decision at half-time to switch to a very familiar two-jammer rotation--Suzy Hotrod and Bonnie Thunders. They increased Gotham's lead to 32 before White Flight hit the deck mid-jam and required extensive on-track attention from the medical staff. She returned to her bench under her own steam. Unfortunately, that injury meant she had to sit out three jams and watch Gotham pull out what would be a decisive lead.

Soulfearic Acid picked up a forearm major in the first jam after the break letting Suzy grow Gotham's lead to 57 points before Soulfearic Acid was released, when she added another five before the jam ended for good measure. With nine minutes gone in the half, Rose found themselves down jammers and with a significant deficit on the scoreboard for the first time in the bout.

JK Rolling stepped up for her first jam of the game for Rose, but lost out on lead to Claire D Way who broke Gotham's two-jammer rotation, though the Boston transfer failed to score. Suzy added four over Soulfearic Acid before JK Rolling's second jam, as Rose hit serious penalty trouble. By the time Bonnie called off the jam, Gotham found themselves in a 174-83 lead.

White Flight returned to the jam line and made short work of Gotham's lead, and took her team past the 100 mark when Phage was boxed. Gotham started to hit penalty trouble of their own after a succession of forearm majors decimated the Gotham pack. Phage managed to get 3 when she escaped the box to make it a 22-3 jam in Rose's favor.

A careless call from Bonnie Thunders saw Soulfearic Acid get the better of a 7-4 jam despite being called lead, and the Gotham lead slipped to 185-116. JK Rolling picked up 4-0 during Hyper Lynx's first jam of the night, before White Flight got Rose's second lead call in a row, and picked up another 4-0 to eat further into Gotham's lead. Hyper Lynx got boxed on a high block to give Soulfearic Acid a great chance to pull her team back into contention with a little under nine minutes left on the clock. She swept around for repeated untouched scoring passes to make the score 185-138 before calling it to allow White Flight to start unopposed with a 4-2 pack advantage.

White Flight breezed past Fisti Cuffs and Mick Swagger for lead by turn one, but OMG WTF returned to the track from the penalty box and tightened up the Gotham which kept her scoreless. Soulfearic Acid made it six lead jams in a row for Rose, then Claire D Way was boxed for insubordination, allowing Soulfearic further narrow the gap to 185-146.

White Flight got lead in the next jam as the bout entered its final five minutes, but could only get one point before being forced into a call after repeated hits from Sexy Slaydie kept her under control.

At that point Gotham again returned to the Suzy and Bonnie rotation, which snuffed out the Rose fans' hopes of a revival. When White Flight hit the box after a multiplayer block, with two minutes left on the period clock, any ideas Rose had of an improbable comeback completely vanished. Suzy Hotrod laid down a big powerjam on Rose, and pushed the Gotham score past 200 and into a 66-point lead, with 40 seconds left in the period.

Soulfearic Acid got lead after a minor forearm disqualified Bonnie, and called it with ten seconds left on the clock. Rose’s bench forced a final jam. Soulfearic Acid got lead when she got out first, while facing Bonnie Thunders again, but she lost the jam 8-4 to leave the final score at 221-152.

Bout Stats courtesy of N8:

GOTHAM: 221 pts, 22/42 LJ, 32 PM, 8 jammer PM
Bonnie Thunders: 11/19 LJ, 107 pts, 5.63 PPJ, +73 JPD, +3.84 JPDPJ, 1 PM
Suzy Hotrod: 7/11 LJ, 70 pts, 6.36 PPJ, +45 JPD, 4.09 JPDPJ, 1 PM
Slambda Phage: 1/5 LJ, 35 pts, 7.00 PPJ, -27 JPD, -5.40 JPDPJ, 3 PM
Claire D. Way: 2/4 LJ, 9 pts, 2.25 PPJ, -4 JPD, -1.00 JPDPJ, 2 PM
Hyper Lynx: 1/3 LJ, 0 pts, 0.00 PPJ, -18 JPD, -6.00 JPDPJ, 1 PM

ROSE: 125 pts, 20/42 LJ, 32 PM, 6 jammer PM
Soulfearic Acid: 12/20 LJ, 100 pts, 5.00 PPJ, +28 JPD, +1.40 JPDPJ, 2 PM
White Flight: 7/17 LJ, 44 pts, 2.59 PPJ, -59 JPD, -3.47 JPDPJ, 3 PM
Scald Eagle (left due to injury): 1/2 LJ, 5 pts, 2.50 PPJ, -16 JPD, -8.00 JPDPJ, 1 PM
JK Rolling: 0/3 LJ, 3 pts, 1.00 PPJ, -22 JPD, -7.33 JPDPJ, 0 PM