Salem, OR

Rat City plays patient game, earns trip to Champs after defeating Detroit

By Shelly Shankya

The battle for Third Place at Salem Playoffs and a trip to WFTDA Championships in November featured a physical and penalty-laden match-up between Rat City Rollergirls (3 seed, rank 12) and Detroit Derby Girls (4 seed, rank 15). After a slow start for Rat City, the women from Seattle regrouped and went on a tear after six jams. The momentum that Rat City gained in the remaining 16 jams set Seattle up for the win, defeating Detroit and securing their trip to Championships, 240-129.

“Coming into [the game tonight] we knew it would be a close game,” Rat City spokeswoman and blocker Teeny Mussolini said. “We practice patience because getting pumped too early can cause problems. Playing 0-0 or 0-1 jams is our bread and butter; we can do that all day. We practice patience so when our opportunity comes, we can score those 20-point jams.”

When Rat City started to skate away with the lead in the sixth jam, they did so off of a power jam triggered by Detroit jammer Feta Sleeze’s track cut. The cut, forced by Rat City blocker Yoko Onoudi’nt, elicited three jams totaling 79 points for Rat City. The bench managers for Seattle signaled for jammers Jukestapose, Sintripetal Force, and Luna Negra to run the clock during their jams so, while the jams were not shutouts for Detroit, Rat City came out on top of the point gain.

“Yesterday we had 37 penalties in our game against Atlanta,” Teeny Mussolini said. “In our team debrief last night, we talked about how we need to focus on cleaning up our game. And that’s what we did in our game today.”

Detroit suffered a point deficit, as well as penalty trouble. Blocker and jammer Race McChaser had six penalties before the close of the period, having accrued her sixth on an illegal procedure for jostling another skater before the start of the jam. At the end of the first half, the Detroit side of the penalty board was riddled with black marks, many of their players sitting at three or more penalties—a total of 22 for the team—whereas Rat City skaters had seven total penalty minutes.

Just like the opening of the first half had Rat City on the short end of the jam scores, so also did the opening of the second. They patience that Rat City showed, however, paid off as Detroit jammers got into penalty trouble in the eighth jam. Ally Sin Shoverland went to the box on a cut track, opening the track up for Sintripetal Force to grab 15 points before a star pass to Carmen Getsome who scored an additional five points. Rat City held Detroit to 60 points during the second half while also playing a clean game.

Detroit blockers continued to people the penalty box, and Racer McChaser fouled out with six minutes remaining in the game. In the end, Rat City’s clean game—getting 17 total penalty minutes for the game—and patient jammer action—they scored 96 points in the second—fortified their defeat of Detroit and assured them a trip to WFTDA Championships as the #3 seed from Salem.

“We’re going to get back to training,” Teeny Mussolini said. “Every game is a new opportunity, and we’ve already identified some things we want to fix and tweak from this tournament. I think if we make a few tweaks, we’ll be a real powerhouse in Milwaukee.”

Detroit Derby Girls maintained their seed, finishing the tournament in fourth.

Final Score

(4) Detroit Derby Girls 129
(3) Rat City Rollergirls 254