Kalamazoo, MI

Sac City Dominates Paper Valley

By Vile Love It

Paper Valley Roller Girls (seed 7, ranked 55), after their win over Suburbia Roller Derby, earned a spot in the bout against 2nd seeded Sac City Rollers (ranked 45) out of Sacramento, California. This tournament was the first for the team from Appleton, Wisconsin, and it showed from the first jam all the way through the bout. They struggled and seemed distracted at times.

Sac City took control of the bout right from the beginning. Their jammers were easily able to manage any offense that Paper Valley was able to put up, while their blockers were able to contain Paper Valley’s hard-fighting jammers.

“I think that we were tired from playing the earlier bout. We didn’t have any expectations about Sac City before this game so didn’t prepare in any particular way. We just tried to play our game,” said Paper Valley’s Captain, Blazin Britches (#26). “These things happen. We’re going to rest up and get ready for tomorrow.”

Photo by Steve Jurkovic Photography

Penalties, once again, made a big difference in the game. The teams were evenly matched in penalty minutes in the first period (Sac City sat for 21 minutes and Paper Valley sat for 23) and both teams improved in the second half. However, Paper Valley cut their penalty minutes to 18, while Sac City only sat for 4 minutes. Unfortunately, so many of those trips to the box were made by Paper Valley’s jammers (there were 10 jammer trips to the box). Sac City’s jammers only made 4 trips over the entire bout.

A jammer can’t score if she’s sitting in the penalty box.

In many games this weekend, there have been instances of jammer exchange in the penalty box but in this game the Sac City jammers played an exceptionally careful game. It was the lowest number of jammer penalties by a team for the tournament so far.

At the half, Sac City held a definitive lead 177-65.

In the second half, Sac City tightened even further as Paper Valley’s fatigue really began to show. The team from Wisconsin played with all the heart and determination they had left, but they were clearly running on fumes at times. They managed to hold Sac City to less points than they scored in the first half (120).

This is not to say that it was a breeze for Sac City. Paper Valley got in their way and slowed them down as much as they could, but Sac City clearly had the momentum and edge and held Paper Valley to only 39 points in the second half.

“Sac City Rollers are really proud to be here. This is our first year as a WFTDA league and we are super proud to be here at the D2 Playoffs,” said Sac City’s La Lucha. “We come from a group of non-career skaters. We’ve all taught ourselves how to skate and we are just really excited to have made the tournament in our first year.”

Final score

(2) Sac City Rollers 306
(7) Paper Valley Roller Girls 104

Sac City advanced to semifinals; Paper Valley goes to the consolation round.