Steel City (#5) defeats Dutchland (#10) but falls to #9 in the East

By Vile Love It

Steel City Derby Demons (#5), Pittsburgh, PA and Dutchland Derby Rollers (#9), Lancaster, PA met on the track Sunday morning for the bout that would decide 9th and 10th place in the WFTDA's East region.

Photo by Kelli Catana

It was an uncomfortable spot for Steel City to be in and they focused that feeling in their game play.

“We had a big team meeting last night and got our heads together, got our spirits up and found our team unity again,” said Steel City's The Crippler. “We were a different team yesterday, sort of scattered.”

“We had very lofty goals for ourselves coming into the tournament. We all felt the pressure. We weren't working together like we normally do. We were all trying to win the game for our team individually. That didn't go too well. But after the bonding last night we were able to come together and play as a team.”

Steel City struck hard in the first jam, keeping Dutchland's jammer stuck in the pack while Steel City's jammer, 'snot Rocket Science scored 13 points.

Pressure from Steel City and Dutchland skaters cycling in and out of the penalty box was the theme of this bout, which included a foul out midway through the second period by Dutchland's Bela Lowblowsi. Dutchland's jammers spent 9 minutes in the box compared to Steel City's 1 minute.

Every time Steel City was on a power jam they would pull the pack to a stop and their jammers (Hurricane Heather, 'snot Rocket Science, and Leannibal Lector) would lap the pack again and again in high scoring jams of 25, 30, and 33 points.

When Dutchland could stay out of the box and field a full contingent of skaters they were able to give Steel City a hard time. But it wasn't enough.

At the half, the score was 243-58 in Steel City's favor.

In the second half, Steel City clamped down on Dutchland who struggled to put out a consistent, effective defense. At times, Dutchland was able to recycle and hold Steel City's jammers in the pack for a while, but it was rarely long enough to give their own jammers the time to score more points.

In one jam, Dutchland's J.K. Trolling skipped up the inside line on her scoring pass and called it before Steel City could score. Dutchland just needed a lot more jams like that one.

“We feel pretty good. This weekend was the first time we got to play together as a team. We had about 8 weeks to rebuild our team until the tournament,” said Dutchland's captain Skid Ho. “We hope to take what we learned here into next season and continue to grow and develop as a team.”

With ten minutes left in the game Dutchland broke the century mark, but Steel City held at 364.

At that point, Steel City's 'snot Rocket Science broke through the scrum start but headed straight to the box on a major, giving Dutchland their first power jam of the game. It didn't last long though as Dutchland's jammer fought through Steel City's blockers and earned her own trip to the box. 'snot Rocket Science ended the jam spinning through Dutchland's blockers, though her feet spun right out of bounds just as the jam-ending whistles blew.

Steel City remained firm and capitalized on another late game power jam, and scored over 400 points in this bout.

Steel City Derby Demons (#5) 476 - 9th Place
Dutchland Derby Rollers (#9) 107 - 10th Place