Brewcity (#9) Upsets Chicago Outfit (#8)

by Vile Love It

A beautiful day in downtown Niagara Falls, New York, served as the backdrop for an exciting start to the 2012 WFTDA North Central Region Playoffs and the official kickoff of WFTDA tournament season.

In the first bout of the first day of the three-day tournament, The Chicago Outfit (#8) and the Brewcity Bruisers (#9) waged a defensive battle on the concrete floor inside the Niagara Falls Conference & Event Center.

Photo by Bob Dunnell

They played each other at last year’s North Central playoffs and during the 2012 season, and Chicago won both games (129-113 and 93-82, respectively), but this time Brewcity would take the win and provide the first Playoffs seeding upset.

The score was very tight for much of the first half of the bout. Brewcity held on to a slim lead but each team chipped away at the score with three or four point jams. There wasn’t more than a five point lead until mid-way through the first period.

There were several jams where Brewcity was able to completely shutdown Chicago’s jammer while their own jammer made several scoring passes. At the end of the first half, though, the score was still fairly close with Brewcity in the lead: 81-52.

Both teams struggled throughout the second half with penalties. Many jams had micro packs, with only one or two blockers for each team. Also, the jammers frequently traded penalties, many times in the same jam.

“One of our biggest struggles this year has been managing our penalty minutes,” said Anna ‘Killy’ Krajcik, of Brewcity. “Having to play short is tiring. We had to fight to bring our focus back together and bring our momentum back up and to push that attitude back onto the track.”

For most of the bout, Chicago struggled to mobilize their offense and capitalize on their power jams. That is, until the end of the second half when they had 18-point and 14-point power jams, which helped them close the gap and eventually tied up the game 121-121.

“We are a very defense team and we have an amazing defense,” said Silk Assassin, one of Chicago’s regular jammers. “We had to work hard to adjust our offensive game and it took us a few jams to get that together.”

But despite Chicago’s late-game surge, Brewcity was able to do what they had succeeded at throughout the game and shut down the Chicago jammer in the remaining jams.

Chicago was unable to score in the final few jams while Brew City grabbed eight more points.

Brewcity Bruisers (#9) 129
The Chicago Outfit (#8) 121