Charm City (#4) defeats Steel City (#5)

By Vile Love It

The battle to be the next team to play Gotham in the quest to get to the 2012 WFTDA Championships in Atlanta in November was between Baltimore, MD's Charm City Roller Girls (#4) and Pittsburgh, PA's Steel City Derby Demons (#5).

Photo by Kelli Catana

The two teams met in last year's tournament as well. Charm won that game 189-94.

Charm benefited from an early power jam when Steel City's Leannibal Lector sat for a minute in the penalty box. Veteran jammer Crowella De Vil was wearing Charm's jammer star and made good use of the time. She scored 23 points and gave Charm a solid lead.

About halfway through the first period it happened again. Steel City's jammer went to the box and Crowella De Vil pulled her team further ahead, and called off the jam before Steel City's jammer reached the back of the pack for a scoring pass.

With 10 minutes left in the first half, Steel City's snot Rocket Science headed to the box and Charm had another power jam. Charm only had two blockers on the track but they were able to break up Steel City's walls at just the right moments. The power jam brought Charm up to a 62-point lead over Steel City.

When Steel City had a power jam of their own, their blockers exercised patience while snot Rocket Science battled Charm's blockers. It got easier for her on each subsequent pass as the pack whittled down and Charm's blockers went to the box one by one. By the end of the jam she scored 21 points and Steel City was within 37 points of Charm.

With almost two minutes left in the half snot Rocket Science eased her way through the pack while her blockers kept Charm's IM Pain busy. This put Steel City within easy striking range of Charm.

At the half Charm was just hanging on. The score was 123-104 with Charm in the lead and Steel City with the momentum.

Both teams came back from halftime charged with momentum. Unfortunately, so much of it was spent cycling in and out of the penalty box that sometimes the packs got down to two on ones or two on twos. Ten minutes into the second half it was a 35-point game.

Despite the seemingly steady stream of blockers headed to the penalty box during the second half, Charm managed to hold onto their lead.

With a few minutes left in the bout Steel City poured on the heat and scored 56 points. But it wasn't enough to catch up to Charm who managed to put up 47 points during that time. Charm City will advance to challenge Gotham Girls Roller Derby on Day 2.

Charm City Roller Girls (#4) 263
Steel City Derby Demons (#5) 214