Kalamazoo, MI

Burning River reigns over Queen City

By Vile Love It

The Queen City Roller Girls (seed 6, ranked 54) and the Burning River Roller Girls (seed 9, ranked 61) met on Saturday afternoon for an unscheduled rematch.

The two teams met in June in Buffalo when the teams stood next to each other in the rankings (Queen City had been ranked 61 and Burning River had been ranked 60). Queen City came out with a significant win: 256-149. Burning River came into this bout itching for the rematch.

However, both teams had lost their first games of the tournament and neither had planned on playing each other – unless it was for first and second place.

“Burning River seemed like an entirely different team than the one they played against us in June. They have been playing great all tournament long,” said Queen City Co-Coach Mr. T. “Their bouts have been some of my favorite bouts to watch.”

Photo by Shutter Trap | Rhonda Morse Photography

The bout started tight; both teams scrapped for a few points each jam as they tested each other out. Queen City took a slight lead early in the first period, but Burning River took it away. Queen City’s Mexicali Bruise (#420) caught a power jam and put up 13 points on the board to steal back the lead.

With quick jams where both teams chipped at the scoreboard, the close battle continued throughout the first period and Queen City kept a tiny lead heading into halftime. The score was 68-61.

Like every game, penalties played a significant part. On the surface, the teams were evenly matched in both skill, strategy and penalty trouble. In the first half Queen City sat for 14 minutes (1 by a jammer) and Burning River sat for 17 (2 by jammers). In the second half Queen City, had 19 penalty minutes (4 jammer penalties) and Burning River had 16 penalty minutes (4 jammer penalties). Queen City had one player foul out.

In the first two jams of the second period, Queen City’s jammer LiBRAWLian (#622) sat with back-to-back penalties and Burning River ran away with the opportunity, scoring 42 points. By the time the dust settled Burning River had taken back the lead and, although Queen City would come very close, they would never take it back.

The telling stat of the game might be lead jam status. It is the one statistic where Burning River had a clear advantage. In the first half the teams just about split lead jam: 15 for Queen City, 14 for Burning River. But in the second half Burning River earned 10 and Queen City only earned 5.

Power jams, too, leaned in Burning River’s favor. Although both teams had equal number of power jams in the second half, Burning River was able to score more points than Queen City during their power jams.

With barely minutes left in the bout Queen City was able to pull to within 24 points; potentially one high-scoring power jam away from winning the game. Unfortunately for Queen City, the clock ran in Burning River’s favor. Queen City had already used up their timeouts early in the bout and had to let the clock run down.

Burning River held on and took the game.

“We had played Queen City back in June and lost and so we came in today with a specific game. We had planned a counterattack for their strengths,” said Burning River’s West Nel Virus. “It wasn’t a power jam heavy game so it was a little more exciting. And it was a lot of fun.”

Final score

(9) Burning River Roller Girls192 (6) Queen City Roller Girls 163

Burning River moved on to Game 12; Queen City moved on to Game 13.