(9) Philly Bests (12) Charm City, 168-140
BALTIMORE, MD -- As is becoming a pattern in their bouts, Charm City (#12 DNN, 3E WFTDA) gave Philly (#9 DNN, 2E WFTDA) a run for their money but couldn't overcome a significant halftime deficit. For the third time in three games, Charm kept the final margin within 30 points, but Philly took the win, this time by a final of 168-140.
The bout started in the most unconventional of ways -- with Philly taking a knee on the pivot line. A quick 4-0 for V-Diva opened Philly's scoring. That pivot-line knee didn't work so well for them on the next jam--Crowella de Vil got a 6-0 over Persephone, who was repeatedly recycled by a mixture of Lady Quebeaum and Rosie the Rioter in the Charm pack.
IM Pain pushed Charm's lead as Holly GoHardly and O'Chit showed themselves to be a versatile front pairing for Charm City, holding Teflon Donna with an impressive mix of forwards and backwards blocking after the game had reverted to scrum starts on the jammer line – a pattern that remained unbroken for the rest of the bout.
V-Diva put up another 4, as did Persephone in two quick-fire jams that saw both jammers quite rapidly released. Copper Top and Heavy Flo then controlled Crowella for long enough for Teflon Donna to put up four of her own and give Philly a 1-point lead. V-Diva extended that lead to 6, busting through solid Charm walls for her first two passes and leaving the track scattered with black-and-yellow bodies.
Philly's lead was 10 when Charm took a timeout, but Philly came off the better from three lead jam calls in a row and pushed their lead to 23. Trixy von Doom had a good first turn with the star as Persephone found trouble in the Charm pack to make the score 41-25 a little over halfway through the first period.
Persephone, Teflon Donna, and most significantly V-Diva all added to Phily's score without giving up any points over the next few jams, pushing the Philly advantage to 71-25 before a 1-0 to Free Radical put Charm's first points up in some time. IM Pain put up 8 to take Charm to 34 before Holden Grudges and Pain stole points despite coming off the wrong side of lead jam calls.
A strong final jam from IM Pain reduced Charm's deficit to 45, with the scoreboard reading 91-46 going into halftime – a rare half of derby completed without a single jammer being boxed.
The teams' first-half top scorers IM Pain and V-Diva led off the second half. V-Diva came off the better after skipping around Quickshot Kitty to make her initial pass, and making light of some attempted defense from IM Pain on her first scoring pass. After her second she started to run the clock down, with the jam finishing 15-3.
However, the very next jam saw Mo Pain get the first jammer penalty of the night. Crowella de Vil made the most of static short-staffed Philly packs for a 25-0 that cut the deficit to 106-74. A 9-0 V Diva in the next jam would have been much worse for Charm but for some smart hitting on V Diva by Quickshot Kitty. Next, Crowella was boxed for a major back block during a jammer-line scrum start, but Charm kept the pack speed up to again limit the damage – and Crowella even managed to steal two points at the death to make it 121-76 with ten minutes gone.
IM Pain and V-Diva swapped places in the penalty box in the next jam; the two-minute jam ended 17-13 to Philly to leave the gap at 52. IM Pain reduced Charm's deficit to 32 though as Mo Pain found herself unable to get the better of the Charm pack.
Philly's entire jamming roster contributed – ably assisted by strong offense from the Philly pack – to nickel-and-dime their way back to 47 with a long run of lead jam calls. Trixy broke that shortly after the game entered its final five minutes and got a 4-0, but it was the next jam that proved decisive.
V-Diva was boxed on her initial pass with the score at 168-130 – but IM Pain could only make up five points across two jams before V-Diva escaped, and five just after V-Diva had completed her first pass. That left the score at 168-140, and Charm apparently called a time-out with nine seconds seemingly left on the period clock. However, three minutes of official time out and one clock adjustment later, Philly skated out 168-140 winners as those nine seconds vanished.
Philly equalized their record on the year at 3-3; Charm moved to 6-2. Philly will have a busy weekend at the end of the month in Las Vegas, playing DNN #8 Rocky Mountain, #13 Minnesota, #2 Rose City and Team USA at Rollercon; Charm City has about a month off before hosting #7 Rat City on August 11.
