ECDX: Saturday Undercard Wrapup
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River City vs Central NY. Photo: Dave Wood. -
Hudson Valley vs. Harrisburg. Photo: Dave Wood. -
Dominion v Lehigh Valley. Photo: Dave Wood. -
Garden State v Ithaca. Photo: Dave Wood. -
River City vs New Hampshire. Photo: Dave Wood.
FEASTERVILLE, PA -- The first 15 minutes of River City (17E WFTDA) against Central NY (21E WFTDA) were fairly close, leaving the score knotted at 30 early, but Central NY had both massive penalty problems and massive trouble handling River City's no-engagement offense on power jam, leading to some enormous point swings as the game went on. In the first half, River City's Julia Bondage set a new WFTDA record by cruising untouched through a dead-stopped pack multiple times on her way to 45-0. RCR was up 157-75 at the break and rolled even harder in the second to win 328-132. (Bondage ended up with a huge 193 points on 13 jams in the game.) Bout stats via wftda.tv.
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Hudson Valley, the lowest-ranked team at the event at 29E, quite quickly pulled themselves out of the East cellar by handling 23E Harrisburg an upset in Rink 3's opening bout, 146-96. Hudson Valley had been 0-12 in WFTDA-sanctioned play before the win over HARD; Harrisburg dropped to 0-4 on the year.
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Dominion (16E WFTDA) jumped all over Lehigh Valley (25E) in their matchup, only allowing Lehigh Valley to get on the board in two jams in the first 15 minutes to go up by a commanding 66-8; at the break, DDG led 110-32. The first half was frustrating for LVRG, but the second half was even tougher, as Dominion outscored Lehigh Valley 93-4 over the first 20 minutes of the half. Lehigh Valley caught some breaks on power jams in the last few minutes of the game to get some more points on the board, but in the end it was a massive rout favoring Dominion, 223-61. Bout stats via wftda.tv..
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In Garden State (28E) v Ithaca (unranked), Garden State narrowly had the upper hand in the first half and led 83-75 at intermission, but Ithaca got a break early in the second half when Garden State's jammer was boxed for 2 minutes. Back to back 20-0 jams suddenly flipped the advantage to Ithaca, 123-92, with about 20 minutes left to play in the game. That sequence was a major momentum shifter, with Ithaca claiming almost all the lead jammer calls over the middle ten minutes of the half and extending that lead to 149-95 with 11:00 to play -- a 74-12 run to start the half.
From there, it was basically a race to see if Garden State could recover from that swoon before running out of time. They closed to within 40 at 162-122 with 3 minutes to play, but a key 8-0 jam from Ithaca ace Gunder N Lightning slammed the door on the GSR late comeback hopes. The last jam started at 170-122, and Darla Mercado picked up 9-0 for GSR but didn't hear her bench screaming for the call-off until just after time expired -- Garden State was unable to stop the clock and Ithaca took the upset win, 170-131. Bout stats via WFTDA.tv.
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River City (17E) played their second game of the day just about 5 hours after beating Central NY in the Saturday opener; their opponent was a fresher New Hampshire (24E). The story of this one was River City playing catch up for their entire 60 minutes; they fell into an early hole but pulled to within 44-30 with 10 minutes left in the first. They once against allowed NHRD to open up the lead by the intermission, but rallied again in the second half to get it down to 146-110 with 10 minutes to play and 156-129 with 5 minutes to play.
NHRD did an effective job of killing crucial clock time over the next few jams, and with under two minutes to play New Hampshire was up 162-133; there was no lead jammer call on the final jam. Although River City just happened to have the brand-new single-jam record holder on the floor with Julia Bondage jamming, that 29 point gap was too much to overcome without a power jam advantage, and New Hampshire took the WFTDA rankings upset, 169-142.
Comments
Slightly insulted
I realize that my league came into this weekend at the bottom of the East Region, but my teammates and I have been working so hard this season, and to have DNN give us a merely a 2 sentence blurb while the other 'undercard' games, some with teams ranked only 1 or 2 places higher than us, got a few paragraphs with recaps, is insulting.
I realize that maybe to the derby world at large, our game wasn't meaningful in terms of playoffs or stature, but to 12 women who have been busting their asses to win our first WFTDA bout ever....it meant everything.
Whiskey Lullabye
Hudson Valley Horrors Roller Derby
Understand...but props to Justice
While I hear where you're coming from, I have to suggest cutting DNN some slack. Look at the byline on every article written today on DNN. Every time I saw him today, Justice was typing. There were two games going on in parallel all day long and he somehow managed to get them all covered single-handedly.
That said, huge congrats on your win!
Thanks Dave
To give credit where due, though, ECDX recaps on DNN are totally not a solo effort, as London bureau chief Lex Talionis has been taking half of the long-form recaps remotely. Without him, there is no way we would have been able to recap every single bout of the weekend. Although they haven't been available for every bout, the real-time stats from wftda.tv have been extraordinarily useful as well -- not to mention, you know, Dave's awesome pictures, which he has made available to us sometimes even before a bout is finished!
As Dave says, though, the short-form undercard recaps were a solo effort. It is very hard for one person to deliver immediate reports on two separate roller derby games simultaneously, and essentially impossible for one person to deliver immediate detailed reports on two separate roller derby games simultaneously.
We are always doing our best to provide worldwide coverage that is as detailed as possible. On occasions where our best is sub-optimal, I assure you it is due to lack of time, money or opportunity, not lack of desire.
Hmmmm
While I see your point, I have to say I am glad that there wasn't more. While you ladies have busted your butts to win a bout, we have been slipping farther and farther into the gutter. For soneone who has been playing for a few years, it is ultimately frustrating to watch your teammatea faces change every six months. Is that you or your league's problem? No. But it's heartwrenching all the same and makes me lose faith on something that I used to believe in.
But, congrats to you ladies and I hope you start taking the rest of the East by storm.
TriXie Twelve Gauge
Harrisburg Area Roller Derby
grumpy jerkface
I realize that my league came into this weekend at the bottom of the East Region, but my teammates and I have been working so hard this season, and to have DNN give us a merely a 2 sentence blurb while the other 'undercard' games, some with teams ranked only 1 or 2 places higher than us, got a few paragraphs with recaps, is insulting.
I realize that maybe to the derby world at large, our game wasn't meaningful in terms of playoffs or stature, but to 12 women who have been busting their asses to win our first WFTDA bout ever....it meant everything.
Whiskey Lullabye
Hudson Valley Horrors Roller Derby
I'm a grumpy jerkface, but no one is entitled to any one else's accolades. You should be pleased to get them, not insulted when they are perceived to be due. It's fantastic that your team has been working so hard and has pulled off an upset, and I'd have loved to have been in the audience because I always cry a tiny bit upon seeing the joy on players' faces after the final score of an upset is cinched, but you need to take your victory into perspective a little bit and spend more time basking in the elation and meaning it has for your girls, spend less time expecting it to be as relevant to everyone else.
Honestly derby players are quite lucky that people care enough about their passion to watch at all, let alone write about it, let alone consistently and rapidly write recaps for every major event and many minor ones. A lot of non-pro athletes don't have that.
Enough of the "busting our asses" talk
I realize that my league came into this weekend at the bottom of the East Region, but my teammates and I have been working so hard this season, and to have DNN give us a merely a 2 sentence blurb while the other 'undercard' games, some with teams ranked only 1 or 2 places higher than us, got a few paragraphs with recaps, is insulting.
I realize that maybe to the derby world at large, our game wasn't meaningful in terms of playoffs or stature, but to 12 women who have been busting their asses to win our first WFTDA bout ever....it meant everything.
Everyone playing this game has "busted their ass" to various degrees at some point of their derby career. To say "we busted our ass" by itself is fine, but so did everyone else. Why should you expect preferential over everyone else who also "busted their ass?" I'm sick of people using this like it's something special.
You're entitled to nothing but the results, press coverage, and notoriety you earn through play on the track. Don't like what you've got? Get more by winning games against better teams. That's how sports work in the real world.