Ohio (#5) Overtakes Arch Rival (#4)

by Vile Love It

The dinner hour was dished up by the Arch Rival Roller Girls (#4) and the Ohio Roller Girls (#5) in a bout that often seemed like a hard-hitting speed skating race. The jammers had to fight long and hard for lead status, as well as every single point, often taking a full lap of the track to get one point.

Arch Rival and Ohio didn’t meet in last year’s North Central Playoffs, but played each other during the 2012 preseason. Ohio won that bout 168-115.

Photo by David Van Deman

Arch Rival grabbed a slim lead early in the game and hung on while both teams chipped away at the score. In one jam, without a lead jammer, both teams put up a good chunk of points, but in the end it was only a three point differential. About mid-way through the first half, Arch Rival’s jammer, Downtown Dallis, caught a power jam and grabbed 14 points giving Arch Rival their only significant lead of the game at 75-39.

It didn’t take long for Ohio to answer back when Downtown Dallis took back to back trips to the box. Ohio pulled ahead, but not by much. At the end of the half it was a 7-point game. It was still anyone’s game to win.

The second half started out with a 20-point power jam for Ohio, but much of the second period was characterized by small scoring jams for both teams.

“We’ve had a heavy schedule this year and I think that gave us an opportunity to jell and really work together. We practice strategy and we work on how to adapt to other teams and what they are doing. We can read each other well and work together to achieve our goal,” said Loraine Acid of Ohio. “We practice on how to adjust our speed and play at different speeds. At times we feel that the speed helps us control the pack. Everyone on the team has very strong skating skills and when we do things fast we can take advantage of our skating skills to help us make the holes we need.”

Lead jammer status was spread evenly between the teams, with Ohio getting a slight edge, and frequently the jammers were neck and neck on the track. In one jam, the Ohio jammer booty blocked Arch Rival’s jammer right back into the pack. It was fun to watch, but ultimately didn’t help her. The jam ended in a draw.

Arch Rival had more penalty trouble than Ohio, spending 36 minutes in the penalty box compared to Ohio’s 25 minutes. Ohio actually had one more jammer penalty minute than Arch Rival (5-4). Unfortunately, one of Arch Rival’s jammer penalties happened at clutch time when it was only a 10-point game. Ohio was able to capitalize on the power jam and put up 12 points with only a few minutes left in the game. Arch Rival rallied for a 7-point jam in the second to last jam, but it wasn’t enough and Ohio took away the win and the chance to clinch Third Place and a spot at Championships.

“Our team is very disappointed about the results of the game. We trained really hard this season and had great hopes of where we would go. Ohio was a good team and they played a good game. We had a lot of penalty trouble and when you have jammers and blockers in the box, you aren’t going to win the game,” said Arch Rival Captain Mayor Francis Slayer. “We needed to stay out of the box and we didn’t. But we’re going to put our heads down and play hard for the rest of the tournament, and hopefully we’re going to win all of those games and end the tournament with the highest rank that we can now that we missed our chance at Championships.”

Ohio Roller Girls (#5) 142
Arch Rival Roller Girls (#4) 132

Ohio advances to play Windy City Rollers (#1) in Bout 9; and Arch Rival will play Cincinnati Rollergirls (#7) in Bout 7.