Kalamazoo, MI

Hometown Killamazoo beats Queen City

By Vile Love It

The Queen City Roller Girls (6 seed, ranked 54) from Buffalo, New York, took on the hometown Killamazoo Derby Darlins’ (3 seed, ranked 46) in front of a raucous crowd in the final game of the first day of D2 Playoff play.

Photo by Walter J. Smolenski

Killamazoo and Queen City had not played each other before, however, this past year they had both played Tri-City and Toronto’s CN Power. Queen City lost to Tri-City in a close game (179-163) while Killamazoo won a decisive victory against the team (240-126). Both Killamazoo and Queen City lost to CN Power: Killamazoo fell 263-169 and Queen City fell 230-178.

It promised to be a tight and exciting game. Unfortunately, the penalty box got in the way of that.

The box proved nemesis to both teams. By half time, Killamazoo had 2 players with 5 penalties and Queen City had one. By the end of the 60 minutes, both teams had lost 2 players each to expulsion. Killamazoo spent 26 minutes in the box in the first period, 3 of those minutes were jammer penalties. Queen City spent 24 minutes in the first period, 5 of which were jammer penalties.

The game was won by Killamazoo in the first period. Queen City was rusty and scattered and struggled to hold back Killamazoo’s jammers. Their walls were weak and they struggled to put points on the board. Killamazoo capitalized on their 5 power jams and was able to limit the damage done by Queen City during their 3 power jams. By the end of the half it was 140-55.

“We went into this going know it was going to be a battle. We knew that we were very evenly matched and that Queen City was coming here looking to win it. We’ve been preparing for months. I think we had the home field advantage,” said Killamazoo’s Killie Holiday. “Both teams brought it all out, especially in the second half of the game. After looking at our season, we earned this. And we’re looking to take all of it.”

Photo by Mark Santos

The game was almost won by Queen City in the second half. It actually started in the very last jam of the first period when Queen City’s LiBRAWLian (#622) had lead jam but was passed by the Killamazoo jammer. As they approached the pack LiBRAWLian leaped over the apex, landed in the middle of the track while hitting her hips. It woke everyone up on the Queen City team and they came out of their locker rooms a different team.

Queen City scored 139 points in the second period and held Killamazoo to 69 points. They had 14 penalty minutes (0 jammer minutes) compared to Killamazoo’s 24 penalty minutes (3 jammer minutes).

Queen City won the second period, but it wasn’t enough to win the game.

Until midway through the period, Killamazoo held onto at least a consistent 50-point lead until Queen City’s Pepper Stix (#60) grabbed a 24-point jam and brought her team to within striking distance. The score was 185-151. Queen City inched closer and closer to Killamazoo but was unable to get closer than 19 points until the final jam. The hometown team was able to keep their defenses strong and their jammer out of the box at the crucial moments and Killamazoo pulled out the win.

Final Score

(3) Killamazoo Derby Darlins 209
Queen City Roller Derby 194

Killamazoo advances to the semifinal round to play (2) Sac City Rollers; Queen City moves on to the consolation round.