ECDX: (5) Texas Outlasts (11) Philly, 187-154

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Sat Jun 23 2012 11:50pm

FEASTERVILLE, PA -- In the final Saturday bout at ECDX, tournament hosts Philly (11 DNN, 2E WFTDA) waged a brutal, crowd-pleasing war against Texas (5 DNN, 1SC WFTDA). As was befitting a game between two of the oldest teams in the sport, the contest was very old-school in some respects with high-speed packs and some crushing big hits from both teams. In the end, Texas once again used ECDX to get revenge on a team that defeated them in 2011, winning 187-154.

The teams combined for a very high number of jammer penalties, with Philly losing their jammer 9 times while Texas lost theirs 7. Killbox had a big game as a jammer for Texas, scoring nearly half of her team's total with 89; Philly's jammer attack was a bit more balanced, but Teflon Donna led with 59 ahead of 27 for both V-Diva and Persephone.

Though Philly drew first blood on the opener with 8-0 for Persephone over Olivia Shootin' John, the first power jam was advantage Texas on jam 3. Texas jammer Killbox put her team in front with 20-0 as Texas went to no-engagement offense, leaving the score 20-8 Texas about 5 minutes into the game. Texas slightly got the better of the next sequence of jams, putting them ahead 39-16 with 20:00 showing on the first-period clock.

Tough defense from V Diva and Olivia Face gave Philly the opening for a big jam there -- Teflon Donna rumbled for a big 20-0 as Texas jammer OSJ was bottled up and eventually sent to the box. That made it a 3 point game at 39-36 with 17 minutes in the first half.

Polly Gone and Smarty Pants severely double teamed Philly jammer Antidote while Vicious Van Go Go took 4-0 next to give Texas a bit more breathing room at 43-36. Texas called their second timeout here, though, leaving them with just one with over three-quarters of the game left to play. After a 2-0 to Texas, Philly jammer V-Diva had a power jam opportunity and both smashed and jumped her way to a 12-0 Philly win to make it 48-45 with 12:11 in the half.

However, Diva finished that jam in the penalty box; Texas' OSJ had power jam time but solid defense from Olivia Face and Heavy Flo ended up putting OSJ right back in the penalty box as she was called for a hit to the head. It was then Luce Bandit and Barbara Ambush getting a chance to shine as Texas blockers against the released V-Diva. The full length jam ended up at just 4-4.

A crowd pleasing big jam from Teflon Donna gave Philly a 12 point lead at 61-49 with 8 minutes left to play in the half; Killbox cut 3 points off that lead to a new score of 61-52 Philly with 7:34 left in the half.

After a lengthy timeout, Polly Gone had a chance to show her jammer skills and momentarily tied the game with 9 points during power jam but that jam quickly devolved into near chaos as both Polly Gone and Philly jammer Antidote got major penalties. After much penalty box confusion, the new score was 70-66 Philly with Killbox jamming unopposed against an extremely light 2-2 pack.

Killbox had trouble on her opening pass, but after she got lead, she got to momentarily work with a 4-1 pack favoring her; that jam went huge for Texas, 24-0. Texas had a 20 point lead at 90-70 with 2:50 left in the first half, and the margin would remain the same at 96-76 at the break.

There was plenty of action in the first 15 minutes of the second half -- particularly with Philly losing their jammer three times to two for Texas -- but after a quarter of crowd-pleasing back and forth between the teams, the score margin remained unchanged at Texas 130, Philly 110 with 15:49 to play.

Philly blocker Heavy Flo managed to draw a key track cut on Smarty Pants in the next jam, equalizing jammer penalties for the half at three each, and Philly's Shenita Stretcher battled through Barbara Ambush, Luce Bandit, Lucille Brawl and Polly Gone for a 12-0 that made it an 8 point game at 130-122 Texas with 13:20 left.

But Teflon Donna was boxed on a crowd-displeasing track cut next. Even though V Diva had two massive jammer takeouts on Vicious Van Go Go during that power jam that stoked the hometown crowd, it was a key win for Texas as Vicious took 9-2 and moved the score to 139-124 with 10:30 left.

Two jams later, with the score 139-127, both Texas jammer Bloody Mary and Philly's Shenita Stretcher were boxed in their opening passes; when they came out, Shenita picked up a 4th minor and went right back in. In even worse news for Philly, V Diva fouled out of the game on that jam and Bloody Mary went 10-0. That jam quieted the crowd, as it put the score at 149-127 with just under 7 minutes in the game.

Smarty Pants took lead during the remaining moments of Shenita's penalty and put 9 more points up for Texas. It was Texas' biggest lead at 31 points, 158-127, with just over 5 minutes to play.

A no-lead full length jam spooled out to Texas' favor 11-7, with the clock becoming a major problem for Philly with the score 169-134 and 3 minutes left. When Olivia Shootin' John took lead on the next, Texas also ran that jam for the full two minutes, clearly willing to trade Philly points for more time off the clock. It went 10-4 Texas and Philly called their second timeout with 52 seconds to play, needing a bit of a miracle with the score 179-138.

Philly made a bit of an odd decision on the next jam, getting lead in a quick 12 seconds but then immediately calling off the jam at 0-0. They followed that by calling their last timeout with 32 seconds left, leaving them in the same situation but with less time and no timeouts.

While Philly's Persephone did claim lead on the last frame, the 41 point deficit was too much to overcome in just two minutes; the last battle went to Philly by a final of 16-8, but the war went to Texas, 187-154.

Texas is done for the weekend after beating Montreal in the Friday night opener; Philly takes on Denver (3 DNN, 4W WFTDA) Sunday at 3pm Eastern.

Bout stats via wftda.tv.