Nashville, TN

By The Oxford Commakaze

In a rematch of one of the most highly anticipated games of the year, the Gotham Girls Roller Derby pushed to a comfortable, but by no means easy, 280-94 win over the London Rollergirls. Although Gotham won by nearly two hundred points, London nearly doubled its score from when the two teams met in July in an instant-sellout bout just four months ago.

“London was amazing. It’s very true,” said Gotham’s Vicious van GoGo. “Going in, I think that the first half, we might have been a little – I don’t know if we were overly confident, but we were like, ‘We’ve played them, we can do this.’ But then we got into some penalties.” Gotham blocker Roxy Dallas agreed, adding, “Come tournament time, no team is the same as they are in the regular season. Everybody brings their game [and] very serious, aggressive energy.”

Photo Danforth Johnson

London drew the first blood of the bout as jammer Kamikaze Kitten raced out for a quick lead and five-point grand slam while her blockers kept Gotham jammer Bonnie Thunders back the outside of the track, with Stefanie Mainey knocking Bonnie out of bounds and then racing back at the last second trying to draw a cut. But the first, and only, lead change of the game came just one jam after, a 14-0 jam for Suzy Hotrod while London’s Lexi Lightspeed faced a full pack of Gotham blockers dedicated to stopping her in her tracks at the back of the pack.

Gotham held London to just those five points for the first four jams and built its own lead considerably, but London was back on the board less than ten minutes into the game, first by London’s blockers sucking Suzy Hotrod back into the pack relentlessly and then on a power jam after a forearm call on Suzy. Kami’s power jam brought the score back within 20 points, but it took Gotham only moments longer to break the score wide open again, pushing to an 86-24 lead halfway through the period, thanks to wily jammer dodges and a devastating defense that kept London’s jammers from breaking out or passing the jammer star away.

Gotham continued to shut down London’s jammers, including a scoreless power jam for Lexi Lightspeed, but London’s blockers did the same to Gotham, shutting out Team USA jammers Suzy and Bonnie while holding Gotham to just five points in the next six jams. With barely five minutes left in the half, Gotham started to pull away, despite the best offensive efforts of London’s Arocha, bringing the score to 135-53 at halftime.

London was raring to go at the start of the second half, but perhaps too eagerly – when Gotham jammer Bonnie was on her first scoring pass, Kami attempted an apex jump to escape the pack and landed it perfectly, but rolled over the track line while doing so, giving Bonnie an additional 10 points on the subsequent power jam. Although Gothams’ jammers continued to get lead in the first jams of the half, London’s jammers were always hot on their heels to force quick call-offs until a double track cut and insubordination call to Kami left the door for a 20-point power jam for Suzy Hotrod, pushing against a three-wall of London blockers while Gotham held a sole London blocker behind the pack.

London’s offensive attempts kept the pack moving, but were not successful enough to combat Gotham’s hive mind, as was evident in a 19-point jam for Bonnie just moments later as Gotham kept London’s Rogue Runner trapped in the pack for nearly two minutes before she could pass the jammer star to Shaolynn Scarlett. By midway through the half, Gotham had built up a comfortable 150-point buffer on the strength of jammer-thwarting hits by Fisti Cuffs and Bonita Applebaum and quick offensive pinches by Mick Swagger.

Photo by Donna Olmstead

Although London was held to just three points for eight jams in a row toward the end of the second half, the team wasn’t ready to go out with anything left in the tank, holding Gotham scoreless in the last two jams and putting up 18 points of its own on a power jam bridging the last two jams. Despite the final push, Gotham had built up a nearly 200-point lead and was in no danger of losing it, ultimately winning 280-94.

After the game, London’s Raw Heidi was so pleased about her team’s performance that it didn’t matter who actually had the most points.

“We won! We did it! We beat Gotham! Wait … what?” she joked as Gotham’s Vicious van GoGo shook her head and whispered “No truths!” next to her. “We love Gotham. We have a great relationship with them. They were our big sister league for a while, and now we can’t wait to beat them and crush them to the ground – but we’ve got a little bit to go.”

Gotham moves on to play the Rose City Rollers on Sunday at 6 p.m. Central time. London will play the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls for 3rd Place at 4 p.m. Central.

Vicious van GoGo said this weekend’s tournament has been even more competitive than she expected.

“This tournament has been amazing to watch. All of the games have been so incredibly close. Everyone has really stepped it up to an incredible level, the play is brilliant, everybody is giving such strong defense. I love seeing the mix of offense you haven’t seen in the last couple of years. It’s such dymanic derby this year.”

Gotham’s Roxy Dallas agreed, adding, “It’s a great weekend to be a derby fan.”

Final Score

Gotham Girls Roller Derby (Sacramento #1) 280
London Rollergirls (Evansville #1) 94