Asheville, NC

Minnesota Rollergirls vs. Steel City Roller Derby

By Beth Row

The third bout of the day Friday started off with an even trade of points and lead jammers status for both teams. But the Minnesota RollerGirls, of St. Paul, Minnesota, started to open it up 10 minutes into the first half. Steel City Roller Derby, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found themselves on the wrong side of a series of power jams and short packs while Minnesota pulled away and never looked back. Game 3 of the 2013 WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs in Asheville, NC ended with Minnesota dominating Steel City 345 to 59.

Harmony Killerbruise lined up against Snot Rocket Science on the jammer line for the start of the game. Harmony Killerbruise won that battle and claimed the first four points, 4-0, Minnesota. Hurricane Heather picked up lead jammer status for Steel City tied it up on the very next jam and tied the score 4-4.

David A Carter Photography

Minnesota seemed content to get their 4 points and call it jam after jam. Minnesota had a series of “hit it and quit it” jams, leaving the score 28-5 at 21:39 left in the first half. Minnesota continued to hold Steel City scoreless until 20:13 when Snot Rocket Science was able to pick up three points on a late call-off by Minnesota, taking the score to 40-7. But Juke Boxx, Hurtrude Stein, Second Hand Smoke and Diamond Rough proved to be a fierce defense against Hurricane Heather and forced a track cut. With 17:45 left on the period clock, and Harmony Killerbruise putting up 30 more points on a penalty-plagued Steel City blocking pack. Harmony pushed the score to 70-7, Minnesota lead.

Even with picking up lead jammer status with just under 15 minutes left in the first half, Snot Rocket Science was unable to put any points on the board. Hurricane Heather picked up lead jammer status on the next jam as Athena and Stark Raven kept Harmony Killerbruise wrapped up in the pack.

Blocker penalties plagued the Steel City blockers in both halves. The Steel City coach stepped into the penalty box and another blocker was assessed a penalty for illegal procedure. With 2 blockers already in the box, the pivot stayed in the track and in the queue.

Leannibal Lecter was sent to the box with a track cut call with just over 8 minutes left in the half. And Minnesota’s Slambda Phage was able to put up 20 unanswered points, bringing the game to 121-11 and 6:20 left.

At 5:38, Steel City caught their first break in a long time with a track cut by Minnesota’s L’exi-cuter. But with a 4-2 pack advantage for Minnesota, Steel City’s Leannibal Lecter was only able to put 10 points on the board whlie the Steel City blockers made her work for every point. On the following jam, Snot Rocket Science was able to add a handful more points to Steel City’s total. However, the half ended with Steel City’s Hurricane Heather headed to the box and Minnesota leading 149-33.

“It felt really good to execute a lot of the things that we’ve been working hard on,” said Minnesaota’s Medusa. “I feel like we need to continue to play exactly the way we played today and this weekend will go well for us.”

Hurricane Heather committed a track cut as soon as she came back on the track in the first jam of the second half, allowing Minnesota’s Slamda Phage to pile on 35 more points and push the lead to 184-33 on the scoreboard. While Steel City’s blockers made Harmony Killerbruise work hard for her points as the power jam ended, but Hurricane Heather once again in the penalty box on an out of bounds blocking call.

With the game getting further out of reach, Steel City looked to get something going and put hard-hitting blocker Athena in the jammer position. Athena got through and picked up 4 points, bringing Steel’s total to 37. Leannibal Lecter followed it up with another lead jammer call but was unable to put up points. Shortly after, Athena, once again donning the jammer star, was called to the penalty box on a track cut. Minnesota stretched their lead to 240-37.

Steel forced a track cut on L’exi-cuter, only to be followed by a back block call on Steel’s jammer Snot Rocket Science with just over 14 minutes left in the half. Snot came out of the penalty box on a mission to score points. She succeeded using some fancy footwork and ended the jam with 57 on the scoreboard for Steel City.

With power jams and blocker penalties piling up for Steel City, Minnesota took the game with a final score of 345-59.

“We knew Minnesota was going to be a really tough team. We wanted to play together and make strong walls,” said Steel City Captain Ally McKill. “They also had strong walls, and unfortunately they forced us into a lot of mistakes. We did really well when we kept four-on-four on the track. We’ll learn a lot from this and improve on this and have a strong tournament.”

final Score

(4) Minnesota RollerGirls 354
(5) Steel City Roller Derby 59

Minnesota goes on to play the winner of Gotham v. Oklahoma. Steel City will play Columbia Quad Squad at 12 pm on Saturday.