RollerCon: #8 Rocky Mountain Staves Off #13 Minnesota, 139-114
LAS VEGAS, NV – Rocky Mountain (#8 DNN, currently 2W WFTDA pending new rankings) came into the game narrow favorites missing their go-to jammer Urrk'n Jerk'n--but used six different jammers to cover that loss and beat Minnesota (#13 DNN, current 2NC) 139-114 in a game they led for all but a handful of first-half jams.
Fast packs and quick starts dominated the first two jams with only one point scored – but in jam three, a great last-ditch hit by Frida Beater on Second Hand Smoke ended up in Smoke taking a seat in the box after a major track cut, leaving Sweet Mary Pain out unopposed. That left the score at 20-0 with four minutes gone. Minnesota got on the board the next jam in a repeat of the pattern set initially--both jammers escaped in short order, and a quick call was forced with points shared as the jammers chased a fast pack.
A natural 10-0 for Sweet Mary Pain followed shortly as Amanda Jamitinya sat on Second Hand Smoke for the duration of the jam. Second Hand Smoke had a chance to make amends shortly after though, being handed a powerjam when Alpha Q. Up got boxed on a major cut. She cut the deficit to 36-13 before calling it to give Harmony Killerbruise a chance to lessen the deficit further.
Diamond Rough and Shiva Shankin then controlled Alpha at the back of the pack after she came out of the box, letting Harmony lay down another 19 points to make it a four-point game. Back and forth jams made it 38-37 in Rocky's favor with 13:30 left in the period as Minnesota's revival continued. Harmony then nicked three in another fast-paced jam for the game's first lead change. Juke Boxx consolidated Minnesota's lead. A run of pack penalties were Minnesota's undoing as Alpha took the lead back for Rocky, making no mistake when faced with a 4-2 pack advantage.
Rocky then nickel-and-dimed their way for a 28-point lead with the most most consistent run of lead jam calls in the bout so far as they closed out the half on a high with their biggest lead since their impressive opening salvo.
RMRG continued that run for the first two jams of the second half before Medusa got lead and a natural grand slam and Harmony Killerbruise made the most of an initial 4-1 pack advantage to get lead and then found herself on a powerjam when Sweet Mary Pain was boxed.
She was hardly scoring at will, though -- Rocky Mountain vets AJ and Assaultin' Pepa combined to limit the damage. Another natural grand slam for Juke Boxx over Rad Die in the next jam pulled the game back to a single-digit margin at 84-75--at which point Rocky used their first timeout in an attempt to halt Minnesota's gathering momentum. It brought immediate dividends with a 4-0 and an 8-0 to secure their lead.
A powerjam for Second Hand smoke followed with only two Rocky blockers on the track. While Pepa and May Q Pay laid some big hits on Smoke and limited the damage, Minnesota had pulled the game back to within six points. Rocky attempted to reassert a little dominance but the lead hovered around the ten-point mark until Sweet Mary Pain pushed that lead to 19 when Medusa picked up a major cut--but Juke Boxx ensured Rocky didn't pull away with some fine solo defensive work in the pack.
Harmony Killerbruise then struggled with Gaygan to give Rocky a 124-100 lead with 7:27 left after some confusion around a call-off led to an official time-out shortly after Toxic Taunic was boxed. Smoke followed her in on her first scoring pass--and Rocky made the most of their powerjam to give themselves a 36-point lead with five minutes left.
Minnesota threatened to pull that back with a run of lead calls as the clock ticked down--but they didn't manage to get closer than 25 points though as the Rocky jammers proved to be just a little too slippery for the Minnesota packs to hold for long enough to make a serious scoring impact--when the clock ran out, Rocky skated out 139-114 winners.
Rocky Mountain plays again against #9 Philly at 7pm Pacific time Friday; Minnesota plays Philly on Saturday and Denver on Sunday. All RollerCon WFTDA bouts will be streamed live on DNN.
