Asheville, NC

Gotham Breaks Playoffs Record with Oklahoma Beating

By Beth Row

First Seed and defending two-time WFTDA Champions, Gotham Girls Roller Derby showed their dominance over #9 Oklahoma Victory Dolls--who are attending WFTDA Playoffs for the first time this year--and set a record for the widest score margin at Playoffs.

Bonnie Thunders on the jammer line with Blood Bjorn Pathogen. Bjorn picked up lead jammer, but didn’t call it in time and Gotham won the jam 3-2.

David A Carter Photography

T Pain was boxed in the following jam. Suzy Hotrod opened up the Gotham lead while Oklahoma blockers rotated through the penalty box. The scoreboard read 32-2 at the jam’s end. Czech 1-2 was also sent to the box bringing Gotham’s lead to 62-2 with 24 minutes left.After a few power jams for Gotham and a few jams in which the OK jammer never made it out, T Pain got lead jam and scored two points before Claire D Way made it out of the pack. The score at 15:16 was 152-4. Czech 1-2 took advantage of a much-needed power jam when Suzy Hot Rod went to the box on a back block. Oklahoma had scored 12 unanswered points making the score 152-14 with 13:45 left.

Suzy Hot Rod slipped out of the penalty box undetected to add to the Gotham’s lead 156-14 with 12:22 left in the first half.

Dolly Dynamite went to the box for a track cut penalty and gave Bonnie Thunders a power jam. Oklahoma continued to have jammer penalty issues and Gotham continued to roll 201-14 with 8 minutes left. T Pain was released from the box and fought her way through the pack, but not before Vicious Van GoGo made it 223-14 with just over 5 minutes left.

With 6 power jams in the first half, Gotham was able to post a 287-14 score.

DEZdispenseHER was assessed a delay of game penalty for the start of the first half. But it didn’t affect the pack for OK, as Bjorn busted through for lead jammer, got four points and called it 287-18.

OK continued to keep fighting with their jammers slipping out of the pack even though Suzy Hot Rod and then Bonnie Thunders continued to jam for Gotham.

Bjorn picked up lead jammer with under 24 minutes, but was called for a track cut when she went for points. Bonnie Thunders ended the jam with 350-21 on the scoreboard and 22 more minutes to score points.

T Pain knocked around in the back of the pack tried a star pass to Mount Crushmore. She escaped the front of the Gotham defense as the jam was being called. 397-21, 17:34. But Gotham continued to dominate the ladies from OK. Suzy Hot Rod showed great clock management as she called it right as Ka-Kaw! was approaching the pack for her scoring pass with just over 16 minutes left in the second half.

With only 6 minutes left in the game both jammers, Viscious van GoGo and Dolly Dynamite, got out of the pack but neither awarded lead jam. GoGo was awarded lead on her scoring pass, while Dolly Dynamite went to the box on a track cut. The score was 493-21, Gotham lead. Gotham continued their rotation of Bonnie Thunders, Claire D Way, and Viscious van GoGo and rolled to 510 points with 2:35 left in the game.

Ka-Kaw! went to the penalty box to give Gotham their 3rd power jam of the second half. Ka Kaw was able to free herself from the box but was unable to break through. The game ended there with Gotham winning 545-21 over Oklahoma Victory Dolls.

Dolly Dynamite: “Our biggest strategy was to play offense, to get our jammers out whether it was first or not. I feel like we were successful at it and we came back in the second half and continued to play offense.”

Final Score

(1) Gotham Girls Roller Derby 545
(9) Oklahoma Victory Dolls 21

Gotham will go on to play Minnesota RollerGirls. Oklahoma will play winner of game 7, Columbia QuadSquad or Steel City Roller Derby.