Arch Rival (#4) Fends Off Cincinnati (#7)

By Vile Love It

In the second consolation bout of the North Central Region Playoffs, Arch Rival (#4) met Cincinnati Rollergirls (#7) on the track. The consolation games determine the full 5 through 10 rankings at the end of the tournament. The more you win, the higher your ranking.

The beginning of the bout was all Cincinnati. It took Arch Rival four jams to put up any points and by Jam 9 Cincinnati had a 35-8 lead. But then Cincinnati's jammer went to the box, and in what turned out to be the theme of the bout, Arch Rival capitalized on the power jam and scored 25 points.

Photo by Bob Dunnell

Once Cincinnati opened the door to the penalty box it seemed they couldn't close it again. Throughout the game, they only had 15 jams with a full contingent of blockers on the track for the entire jam. All in all, Cincinnati served 51 minutes in the penalty box; seven of those by their jammer.

In addition to their penalty trouble, Arch Rival was able shut down the Cincinnati jammers for eight jams during the first half. Towards the end of the half, Cincinnati was able to play two good jams and at half time Arch Rival's lead was only 14 points. Halftime score was 69-55.

But, when the Cincinnati jammer went to the box in the first jam of the second period, Arch Rival pulled away. Downtown Dallis scored 25 points in the power jam. And that wasn't the last big jam of the period for Arch Rival either. They managed two 30-point jams, a 19-point jam, and a 15-point jam while Cincinnati was only able to grab one 25-point jam.

“We've played Arch Rival three times this year. We have played them almost as much as any other team. They know what we do and we know what they do,” said Quad Almighty, Cincinnati's head coach. “At the beginning of the game we executed plays very well. We were able to set the tone of the game. They got into penalty trouble first but then we did. There were some unfortunate blocker errors and jammer errors. We look forward to playing them again and we don't play them enough.”

Cincinnati frequently shared the box with Arch Rival and at times it seemed that there was a rotating crew of black and white jerseys making their way around the track to the box. In all, Arch Rival had 41 penalty minutes; eight of those served by their jammers.

“Our first game didn't go our way and that carried into this game. We came out really slow and the game went back and forth. During halftime we talked about things and the change we were able to produce was all mental,” said Magnum P.I.M.P., coach of Arch Rival. “I think the players had success at the beginning of the second half and it snowballed in a good way.”

“Also, we made the decision at half time to stay positive and always give your teammates a“good job”coming off the track. No matter what happens we were going to keep the positive thoughts going,” said Pains Drifter, bench manager for Arch Rival. “Because of that we kept our heads. We were able to forget about the bad jams and bad penalties and we focused on what we could do right and that helped us build the kind of momentum we needed.”

Arch Rival successfully shifted the momentum in their favor in the second half and was able to secure a solid win.

Arch Rival Roller Girls (#4) 252
Cincinnati Rollergirls (#7) 102