Philly (#2) defense fends off London (#6) in semifinal round

By Vile Love It

After yesterday’s win against third-seeded Montreal, the London Rollergirls (#6), of London, England, stayed on the hunt for the champion spot and advanced to play the Philly Roller Girls (#2), Philadelphia, PA.

Photo by Kelli Catana

In second jam of the bout Philly’s jammer headed to the penalty box giving London the first of seven power jams of the game. London’s passive offense was costly though, and precious seconds ticked off as their jammer battled the tough Philly wall.

Philly pulled back ahead by 1 point in the next jam and then took off. Ten minutes into the first period, Philly had built up a 38-point lead.

Philly held tight, overlapping walls that kept London’s jammers caught up while London had trouble containing Philly’s V-Diva when she had some speed. When London was able to catch V-Diva in a solid wall and slow her to a crawl they were able to knock her out of bounds over and over. However, they didn’t get that opportunity too often.

With 12 minutes left in the first half Philly had a solid lead: 68-27.

“We felt like we started pretty slow in the game against Boston so today we came in, did a long warm up and felt more prepared and calm,” said Philly’s Mo Pain. “One of the things we forgot to do yesterday was to sing our ritual song which is the theme song from ‘Rocky.’ We always sing it a capella and out of tune. It’s the secret to our success.”

Throughout the entire bout Philly earned lead jam over 60% of the time and they made strategic use of it. While Philly had several high-scoring jams, other than one 19-point jam, they kept their lead using the hit-it-and-quit-it method.

But, as most fans already know, London is a bit of a chameleon and they seem to thrive on adapting to new opponents and rising to challenges. No one was counting them out.

With 3 minutes left in the half London caught another power jam and Philly’s blockers migrated to the penalty box; for a few seconds Philly only had one blocker on the track. London’s jammer took off and brought back 34 points.

By the half Philly remained in the lead: 109-66.

“We knew this game would be a tremendous challenge. We knew we would have to fight very hard to get through Philly’s defense and I think we did a really good job of that,” said London’s Raw Heidi. “We played better during the second half because we always make adjustments during halftime. We talk about what is working and what isn’t and how we might change our strategy and that was a big help to us in this game.”

Early into the second half, Philly jammer V-Diva headed to the box for leapfrogging an opposing player and London took full advantage of the power jam. By the end of the jam they came to within 16 points of Philly.

Much of the second period was spent with Philly grabbing lead and calling it off before London could score.

With only 6:25 left, Philly maintained a 31-point advantage, which they were able to increase over the next few jams.

With less than 2 minutes left on the clock London’s jammer headed to the box and in the next jam, after a swap of different jammers, Philly settled on Teflon Diva who suavely managed the London blockers and scored 13 points to finalize Philly’s place in the bout for first place tomorrow against Gotham Girls Roller Derby.

“London is a fantastic team and they maximized the power jams we gave them,” said Mo Pain. “Despite all that we maintained a strong defense throughout the game and that’s what helped us win it in the end.”

London will have another shot at getting to Championships when they go up against the Charm City Roller Girls in the third place bout.

Philly Roller Girls (#2) 176
London Rollergirls (#6) 144