Salem, OR

B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls keep penalties low to secure a spot at Champs

By Shelly Shankya

The last time B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls (1) (W4) played Detroit Derby Girls (4) (W15) was in 2011 in The Golden Bowl tournament. BAD beat Detroit. Roller derby has changed a lot since 2011, but the outcome of today’s game was a repeat of the BAD Girls’ win two years ago. Asserting their higher seeding from the first whistle to the last, B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls defeated Detroit 343-59.

Out of the 22 jams in the first period, B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls picked up lead 18 of those jams, and the tale of lead jammer spelled out the success for the women from San Francisco. That and the five power jams the skaters from Detroit gifted them; Bay Area scored more than 100 points on power jams alone. Pack numbers also favored the women in gold, as Detroit blockers spent twice as much time in the penalty box as Bay Area. With the score at 88-12, Detroit called a timeout to reassess, but to no avail. Between Detroit’s jammer penalties and the backwards bridging that Bay Area did, executed almost effortlessly by BAD veterans Demanda Riot and belle RIGHT hooks, Detroit had 20 scoreless jams in the first.

Jules Doyle

“If you saw our performance at The Golden Bowl this year, you know we were penalty heavy, and that’s something we’ve really worked on this year,” Bay Area jammer Chantilly Mace said. “When we’re all on the track, we know things are going to be good. We’ve been working on analyzing our penalties this season, trying to distinguish our perception of our own penalties and the officials’ perceptions. We’ve had to put aside our own egos to make that happen.”

B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls scored 189 in the first period, 154 points more than Detroit’s 35. Detroit’s jammer Race McChaser scored 23 of her team's points during a power jam after Bay Area's Lulu Lockjaw went to the box on a back block. The high-scoring jammers for Bay Area were Lulu Lockjaw, with 73 points, and Chantilly Mace, with 54 points.

“As a jammer, I know I have to be on the floor to do anything for my team,” Mace said. “I also know that I can rely on my blockers and that I don’t have to take all the responsibility for scoring the points. That’s how derby was about five years ago—the jammers were really the only ones responsible for points—but now it’s all about how your team interacts, and I know that I can rely on my blockers to help with the responsibility.”

Detroit came back swinging after the half, but the team started accruing penalties starting in the third jam of the second. After Detroit jammer Freakin’ Rican went to the box on a major track cut, the Bay Area blockers Kristi Yamagotcha and Murderyn Monroe cleared the track for Chantilly Mace to score 35 points, taking the score to 227-39. Solid defense by the Detroit blockers Spanish Ass’assin and Fatal Femme kept Bay Area jammers Lulu Lockjaw to seven points and Nock Nock to two points in the following jams. Later in the half Detroit jammer Roxanna Hardplace got into some serious penalty trouble, accruing three over the course of one jam, one for a back block, one for a direction of play, and one an illegal procedure for leaving the penalty box too soon. The illegal procedure was her seventh penalty, and she fouled out of the game.

“Securing our trip to Championships is exciting,” Chantilly Mace said. “We’ve worked hard this season, and keeping our penalties to a minimum have been a huge part of our success.”

In the last eight jams of the game Bay Area scored 69 points to Detroit’s 10. That large point differential was a snapshot of the game as a whole.

Final Score

(4) Detroit Derby Girls 59
(1) B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls 343

Bay Area moves on to play in tomorrow’s Championship game against the Atlanta Rollergirls (2 seed). Detroit Derby Girls (4) moves on to play the Rat City Rollergirls (3 seed) for a chance at third and a trip to Milwaukee for the WFTDA Championships.