East Semifinal: 1E Gotham Thwarts 4E Charm City, 283-86
BURLINGTON, VT -- Charm named an unchanged roster from their victory over Steel City in the 2 p.m. game at Sugarbush Showdown, while Gotham rang two changes; Claire D Way took over jamming duties from Slambda Phage, while Papierschnitt came in for Sweet Sherry Pie. Charm still had injured captain Holly Gohardly in their 14 to allow her to assist the benching team, and so were effectively only skating with 13.
Charm started both periods quite strongly -- but a 110-0 run towards the end of the bout meant it ended 283-86 to Gotham.
A rough opening for Charm's I.M. Pain saw Bonnie put up a 14-0 as Pain seemed to take a hit to the face, but Crowella de Vil livened up the Charm support when she got lead in jam two as she used a 4-2 pack advantage to steal lead and four points over Suzy Hotrod. Two jams later and Crowella's second jam didn't go as well as the first; a 4-1 pack advantage for Brazillian Nut meant she could shrug off an uncomfortable opening pass to make it 30-4.
I.M. Pain grabbed four in an 11-4 jam against Suzy Hotrod as the Gotham jammer tried to run penalty time to give the scoreboard a healthier look for Charm City. Two jams later Uvetta Work hit Nut out repeatedly on her first pass to let IM Pain get lead, but fine work from Mick Swagger on the inside limited her to three points.
Crowella again starred for Charm next time out and made it two lead calls in a row for Charm, and a quickfire 4-0 made it 45-15 with a little under ten minutes gone before the Gotham machine shifted up one gear to dominate lead jam calls and the points; the one lead call Charm managed in the next passage of play resulted in a 4-2 loss by Crowella against Nut.
A high block call on Claire D Way gave I.M. Pain a powerjam, and barely legal but supremely effective hitting by O'Chit in the Charm pack helped her onto a 20-0 jam that made it 65-37. Suzy Hotrod was gifted a power jam two jams later when Mick Swagger forced a major cut on Crowella as Suzy was already lead and scoring. That 30-0 jam made it 99-37 with eight minutes to go in the period.
Claire was held by a front wall of O'Chit, Battery Operated and Free Radical next time out with Trixy von Doom jamming--but Gotham still won the jam 4-2. A clockwise block off the line from IM Pain next jam gave Bonnie Thunders a power jam -- and she put up 26 unanswered points.
In the penultimate jam of the period I.M. Pain took advantage of a late call-off from Nut to steal two; Bonnie took three in the final jam to give Gotham a 141-42 lead at the half.
Charm switched up their jammer rotation in the second half -- Allie B Back took three of the first four with Holden Grudges taking the other as they limited Gotham's scoring. Suzy Hotrod then got a major back block call and Allie put up a 24-2 to make it 155-66. A 4-4 between Bonnie Thunders and I.M. Pain nudged both teams forward as Charm's fine second half work continued; Crowella kept it up after a lengthy period of non-skating that ended with Fisti Cuffs being sent off for destroying the pack with a 4-0 over Bonnie.
Pain then got lead over Nut as Holden Grudges, Free Radical and Lady Quebeaum formed a tight wall around Nut to make it 159-83. Suzy ended something of a barren run for Gotham with a 10-0 as Hyper Lynx and Sexy Slaydie bottled up Crowella and successive four-nothing jams for Bonnie and Suzy continued the rebuilding despite ongoing penalty problems for both teams.
That was the start of a 82-0 run for Gotham that saw Uvetta Work foul out with just under ten minutes to go for Charm City as both O'Chit and Free Radical sat on six box minutes to further threaten Charm's already-short line-up. That run became 110-0, but then Gotham botched a pegassist attempt to the outside on Nut to give Holden Grudges a power jam--and her two points made it 269-85 with three minutes left on the clock.
14 more points for Gotham closed the bout out; Gotham won 283-86 and became the first team from the east to punch their championships ticket and progress to the championship bout at 6 pm tomorrow. Charm CIty progresses to the third-place game at 4 p. tomorrow.
