Bout Recap: Wilmington City 86, Diamond City 85
Posted by Justice Feelgood Marshall on 29th October 2007
In a nearly perfectly matched contest that went through a number of lead changes before coming down to a rowdy conclusion, the Diamond City Scream Queens of Wilkes-Barre, PA came up just one point short against the home Wilmington City Ruff Rollers, 86-85.
The first jam of the evening was a preview of things to come, as Wilmington’s Twisted Tinkerbell and Diamond City’s Cheeta Trouble jammed to a 4-4 tie.Wilmington would take lead on the first three jams of the bout to establish a 10-7 lead, but on Jam 4, DIamond City’s Corie Cutthroat got lead and a 5-point grand slam over Loli Dagger to give the Scream Queens a 12-10 lead that they would keep for the majority of the half. With about 5 minutes to go in the half, it was looking dire for the home team, as they’d only gotten a single narrow jam win (6-4 for Ali Kaholic over Cheeta Trouble) and DIamond City had pushed their way out to a 54-40 lead. But Wilmington would make up all the ground in just two jams — first, Roxi Gunz picked up a quick 4-0 over Electra Violence, and with Electra in the penalty box to start the next jam, Wilmington’s Lolli Dagger got two 5 point laps on her way to a crucial 13-0 jam that put Wilmington back in the lead, 57-54. With the half ending on the following jam, Wilmington would be able to take the momentum into the locker rooms.
The second half started out with the momentum ping-ponging from team to team — a 4-2 for Wilmington was immediately followed by a 4-2 for Diamond City and then a 0-0. On the half’s fourth jam, Veronika Gettsburger would get Diamond City a razor-thin lead by scoring a 4-0 over Lolli Dagger, putting the score at Diamond City 64, Wilmington 63. Just three jams later, Wilmington’s Antidote turned it around again, though, taking advantage of a power play to get 5 points to zero for Cheeta Trouble and moving the score to Wilmington 68, Diamond City 66. The lead would switch twice more before Diamond City got two back-to-back 5-0 jams that made the score Diamond City 80, Wilmington 73 with about 10 minutes left in the bout.
After the following jam ended when jammers Roxi Gunz and Action Jaxson were both sent to the box during play, Wilmington would start a comeback. Twisted Tinkerbell took a serious hit as the Wilmington jammer and was clearly hurting from it, but had the presence of mind to pass the star to pivot Will O’ the Whip, who managed to put up 3 points against 1 for Electra Violence. A couple of jams later, Diamond City ran into serious penalty trouble, when overlapping penalty time at the end of a jam meant that Wilmington started with a 5-on-1 power play (Diamond City’s Kristella Deville getting a raucous ovation for being the lone woman standing for the visitors.) While it only lasted 4 seconds, it was enough time for Wilmington jammer Antidote to easily claim lead jammer, and she racked up 4 points to make the score Diamond City 81, Wilmington 80 with 5 minutes to play.
Two more jams would go quick and scoreless as lead jammers would call off the jam to keep their opponent from getting on the board, but with 3 minutes to play, Wilmington’s Ali Kaholic finally got the lead back to Wilmington with a 5-0 as Diamond City’s Cheeta Trouble had to watch from the penalty box. After another 0-0 jam, the teams lined up with about 35 seconds left on the clock, the game set to end on the jam clock rather than the period, and the score Wilmington 85, Diamond City 81.
As the jam started, though, all hell broke loose when Wilmington jammer Roxi Gunz had the jammer star fall off her helmet. With both benches going wild trying to draw their team’s attention to the lost cover, Diamond City pivot Bloody Keri grabbed the helmet cover from its resting place in turn 4 and tossed it in front of the Wilmington bench, causing the jam to be whistled dead before any scoring could occur. Keri was sent to the penalty box and the teams lined up one more time, with a referee timeout leaving 10 seconds on the period clock. Veronika Gettsburger, jamming for Diamond City, was out of the pack first with lead jammer status, but Ali Kaholic was close behind. With 0:00 showing on the clock, Veronika needed a 4-0 to send the bout into overtime … and although she got her 4 points and called it off, Ali Kaholic had just barely passed the rearmost Diamond City player to get what proved to be the game-saving point for Wilmington. The final score in a wild one was Wilmington 86, Diamond City 85.
Posted in Bout Recaps, Diamond City Scream Queens, Interleague Bouts, Wilmington City Ruff Rollers | 4 Comments »