Milwaukee, WI

By Whacks Poetic

The third game of the WFTDA 2013 Championships in Milwaukee was a battle of the green teams with the Rat City Rollergirls of Seattle, Washington, facing the only team to make it to Championships that they had never played before, the Ohio Roller Girls of Columbus, Ohio.

This was Ohio’s first appearance at Championships having finished second at Fort Wayne Division 1 Playoffs but one can trace their trajectory towards this tournament in how they’ve done in Playoffs the past two years, finishing just shy of a trip to Atlanta in 2012 in fourth place. Rat City was making their triumphant return to Championships with a third place finish at Salem Division 1 playoffs having not attended this season ending tournament since 2008.

Following two nail-biter games earlier in the day, this game would not disappoint. The game was a rotating door of power jams for both teams with Ohio Roller Girls taking the lead in score off of Rat City’s multiple jammer penalties while Rat City managed to get lead almost every time they didn’t go to the penalty box during the initial jam. At the end of the day, however, the penalties would be too much and Ohio would win 230-212 against their Seattle opponents.

Photo by Jules Doyle

The game started out with Ohio Captain Phoenix Bunz on the jammer line facing off against Jukestapose for Rat City. There was no lead jammer after a full lap of the track when both jammers broke free with Jukestapose slightly ahead, calling off the jam immediately. The fifth jam of the game would see the first powerjam when Rat City’s jammer was sent to the box for a low block allowing The Smacktivist to get lead jammer status and put 10 points on the board for Ohio before Jalapeno Business re-joined the fray. At the end of the jam, the score read 22-0 for Ohio with 24 minutes left on the clock. At the beginning of the following jam, Pippi Ripyourstockings backblocked Rat City jammer, Sintripetal Force off the start, allowing Rat City to go on the power jam and put the first 14 points on the board for the Seattle team. The following jams saw Ray City power jams followed by Ohio power jams and halfway through the first period, the team from Columbus held an 85-27 lead over Rat City.

The 11th jam brought new blood on the jammer line with Carmen Getsome jamming for Rat City and Kitty Liquorbottom for Ohio. Carmen Getsome managed to pick up lead and four unanswered points, starting a Rat City comeback where the Seattle team would go for multiple scoring passes every jam. The trend of two jammers on the track would not last long though with Luna Negra being sent to the penalty box on a track cut allowing Bigg Rigg from Ohio to pick up lead jammer. Rat City quickly lost blockers on the penalty kill and Phoenix Bunz started the next jam with only two Seattle skaters to face. Ohio picked up 24 points on the powerjam bringing the scoreboard to 113-43 before Rat City had a jammer on the track once more. Rat City, though, was a dominant force when they had a jammer on the track picking up three leads in a row and allowing multiple scoring passes per jam to bring the score to 117-79 with four minutes left in the first half. Their inability to stay out of the box plagued them again with Jalapeno Business going the box on a forearm and Phoenix Bunz adding 15 points to the score. The first half finished with Jalapeno Business getting lead and scoring 13 points to Phoenix Bunz’ eight to bring the score to 142-96 for Ohio.

The second half saw both teams narrow their jammer bench substantially. Rat City relied heavily on Jalapeno Business and Carmen Getsome while Ohio played Phoenix Bunz, Bigg Rigg and The Smacktivist. The half started with Carmen Getsome for Rat City lining up against Phoenix Bunz for Ohio. Carmen would quickly get her fourth lead jammer on her fourth time wearing the star this bout. With five minutes gone in the second half, it was clear Rat City came to play, having almost halved the gap from the end of the first period; the score standing at 151-129 for Ohio.

“We started off the second half a lot stronger. We reset to what we came here to do,” said Rat City’s Teeny Mussolini. “You know with this tournament everything is do or die and if you want to play tomorrow, you have to win today and that fire was definitely there at the start of the second half. We got that fire back.“

Jalapeno Business and Luna Negra had matching 9-0 jams for Rat City to bring the score to within single digits. Carmen picked up her sixth lead and fans cheered at the first lead change occurred. With twenty minutes remaining, the score was 162-161 for Rat City. Ohio, however, was certainly not defeated and Pippi Ripyourstockings managed to pick up Ohio’s first lead jammer status in four jams as the Ohio blockers dealt handily with Jalapeno Business and put the Columbus team back in the lead 185-177. The Smacktivist would finally end Carmen Getsome’s perfect lead jammer record in the fourteenth jam of the second period. With ten minutes to go the score favored Ohio 192-180 with Bigg Rigg picking up lead jammer status for the Ohio team.

Kit Ruff

Rat City then mounted a comeback with Carmen Getsome putting Rat City in the lead once more with five minutes remaining as Kitty Liquorbottom watched from the penalty box. At the end of the twentieth jam of the second half , Rat City led 208-195. Phoenix Bunz would re-take the lead in the next jam as Luna Negra went to the box on a back block while wearing the star for Rat City. With less than two minutes to go, the score stood at 230-212 for Ohio.

In the final jam of the game, Phoenix Bunz jamming in back-to-back jams secured lead jammer status and watched the clock tick down as Carmen Getsome was sent to the box on a track cut. The score remained 230-212 for Ohio over Rat City.

Phoenix Bunz said two things were going through her head in those final jams.

“I have to skate clean and I have to get lead. Just those two things,” she said. “I stayed clean but I didn’t get lead but I trusted my blockers to draw that jammer penalty. I was able to skate clean so we were able to capitalize on it.”

Final Score

Rocky Mountain Rollergirls (Asheville #2) 198
Angel City Derby Girls (Richmond #3) 228

The Ohio Roller Girls will go on to play the number one seed from Asheville Division 1 playoffs, Gotham Girls Roller Derby of New York, Saturday at 2 pm CST.