Sacred City (#10) upsets Arizona (#7)

By Lois Slain

The second bout of the day brought the first seeding upset, as Sacramento’s Sacred City Derby Girls (#10) put away a solid win over Phoenix’s Arizona Roller Derby (#7). AZRD’s Tent City Terrors lost some key team members to the Oly Rollers in a controversial player transfer that occurred after the tournament seeding was completed, but within the limits of current WFTDA rules.

Photo by Donalee Eiri, Photography by D.E.sign

The score stayed close for the first 15 minutes of the bout, with Sacred starting to build a small lead. Then, Sacred put up 30 points on a power jam and never looked back. They carried the momentum through the period, thanks to solid walls and fast defensive recycling.

“We wanted to really shore up on our walls and sticking together,” said Sacred captain Evil Shenanigans. “The jammers for Arizona are tiny and can get through holes easily.”

Late in the half, AZRD began capitalizing on Sacred’s jammer and blocker penalties, but even a 20-point jam could put only a small dent in Sacred’s lead, which had grown to more than 70 points. The score at halftime was 113 Sacred, 72 AZRD.

“Sacred did a really good job of stuffing the jammer and really gaining control at the first whistle,” said Tent City Terrors’ coach Fred Nutz.

Starting the second period off on a power jam, Sacred cleared their penalty box and got back in the business of controlling the game, putting up 44 unanswered points in the first five minutes. When AZRD was able to get lead, Sacred would quickly spring their own jammers to minimize the damage.

“We were looking at what we were doing right, looking at what we needed to work on and not thinking we had the win in the bag ever,” said Sacred jammer Colt 45.

As Sacred players fatigued and penalties became more of a factor, AZRD was able to make some gains. However, the power jams in their favor often ended up with their own jammer headed to the box after battling Sacred’s defense.

“I thought the girls were able to capitalize on power jams, especially in the last 10 minutes,” Fred Nutz said.

Sacred City Derby Girls (#10) 242
Arizona Roller Derby (#7) 126

Sacred City advances to play #2 seed Denver Roller Dolls in Bout 6.

Interviews by Eva Menace and Killer Vee