Salem, OR

Sacred City upsets Charm, takes advantage of last-minute power jams

By Shelly Shankya

Both teams coming off losses added the fuel that made the first game of Day 2 at WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Salem explosive. Sacred City Derby Girls (7 seed, rank 28) suffered the upset loss to 10 seed Toronto Roller Derby during Game 2, while Charm City Roller Girls (5 seed, rank 20) fell to longtime rival Detroit. At the final whistle, however, Sacred City pulled an upset of their own, defeating Charm City Roller Girls 213-186.

During the first half of the game, the Sacrificers started the game in the lead, at one time leading by more than 20 points. Charm blockers, however, viciously fought to keep Sacred City jammers 4Closer and Daddy’s Girl from making large point advancements. Veteran blockers for Charm City Holly GoHardly and Uvetta Work led the pack with jammer knockouts, forcing cut track calls and other jammer penalties on Sacred City. The penalties started to stack up on both teams, and by the end of the first period, both teams had several skaters sitting at four penalties. The half ended with Charm City in the lead, 100-68.

“We got reeled out of our standard game play and realized we had to bring it back in,” Sacred City jammer Daddy’s Girl said. “Sometimes in the heat of the moment you don’t realize how you’re doing with penalties, so at halftime we had to bring it back together as a unit and we had to keep track of how we skated.”

Donalee Eiri, Photography by D.E.sign

Despite their efforts, both teams came back in after the half and continued to suffer penalty trouble that ultimately ended in Sacred City’s favor. The first jam of the second half found Charm jammer Just Carol in the box for a track cut, giving Sacred City’s 4Closer an opportunity to score 30 points, more than she scored during the entirety of the first. And just like that, Sacred City cut Charm’s 32-point lead to two points. Within four jams, Sacred City took the lead over Charm, after Nuckin' Futz went to the box on a forearm followed by Just Carol’s forearm penalty in the next jam. Sacred City blocker Slapjack worked on a short pack advantage to help jammer Colt 45 grab 25 points before calling off the jam.

With the score at 124-135 and 12 minutes left, Charm City regrouped and used the opportunities Sacred City gave them with blocker penalties. Nuckin’ Futz worked off a power jam from Sacred City’s to score 19, but she went to down at the end of the jam with an injury, stopping play for a few minutes. During the injury timeout, the officials reviewed an insubordination call on Daddy’s Girl which resulted in an extra penalty minute for Sacred City jammer. Susy Pow followed Nuckin’s 19 points with a 19-point power jam of her own, giving Charm the lead, 170-147.

At six minutes remaining, it looked like Charm had the game, despite O’Chit fouling out with seven penalties. Sacred City also lost a blocker, Neill N. Weep, to penalty trouble. When Susy Pow got two penalty minutes for a track cut and an insubordination for not leaving the track quickly enough, Charm opened the door for a last-minute win by Sacred City. A 30-point jam by 4Closer followed by a 20-point jam by Daddy’s Girl made the point spread too large for Charm City to come back with 1:12 remaining in the game. The Sacred City Sacrificers upset the Charm City Roller Girls 213-186.

“That was probably the highest penalty game that I’ve ever played,” Daddy’s Girl said. “There were really high penalties from each team. We decided [after our loss yesterday] that we deviated from our game and we had to bring it back together. We used today’s game to stick to our plan, not letting [Charm City] dictate how we played.”

Final Score

(7) Sacred City Derby Girls 213
(5) Charm City Roller Girls 186

Sacred City (7 seed) moves on to play Victoria Roller Derby League (8 seed) at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Charm City Roller Girls move on to play for ninth place against the Chicago Outfit (9 Seed).