Charleston, WV

By Lexistential Crisis

Rose City Rollers (seed 1, #4) of Portland, Oregon won the gold medal in the final game of D1 Playoffs Charleston against Melbourne, Australia’s Victorian Roller Derby League (seed 2, #5). Rose City is the highest ranked team that VRDL has ever played in a sanctioned game.

VRDL’s Swish Cariboom scored the first points of the game after Scald Eagle was sent to the penalty box for a forearm. Rose City added their first four points in the second jam to bring the score to 9-4 in favor of VRDL. Rose City’s Loren Mutch scored 20 points in the next jam during their first of many power jam opportunities. VRDL was never able to catch back up and regain the lead, as Rose City’s jammers were able to find the tiniest holes in VRDL’s defense to keep scoring points. At the halfway point, Rose City led 56-22.

Slow, braced wall strategies dominated the game, as blockers on both teams were able to prevent jammers from exiting the pack on multiple occasions throughout the first half. In jam 16, with about eight minutes left in the half, lead jammer status was awarded with only 20 seconds left on the jam clock. Both sides were left scoreless at 64-30 thanks to the immovable wall of Sarah Gaither, The Blast Unicorn, Scylla Devourer, and Mercy Shammah for Rose City and the revolving square defense by Bicepsual, Smashin’ Pop, Bianca Sciarretta, and Chuck for VRDL.

Rose City added to their score after that to end the half with 91 points to VRDL’s 46.

VRDL started the second half with a power jam, but Rose’s defense only allowed them to earn lead status and two more points. Hannah Jennings, Shaina Serelson, Jessica Chestnut, and Jessica Rivas fluidly worked together to shut down VRDL’s jammers and limit their scoring to only 50 points in the second half. Meanwhile, their team’s jammers were able to take advantage of VRDL’s seven jammer penalties to add 145 points for Rose City.

With under 19 minutes left in the game, Scald Eagle sailed past VRDL’s blockers with some help from her own team to score 33 points, the highest-scoring jam of the game. This took Rose City’s score up to 169 over VRDL’s 70. Despite the impressive defense from VRDL, Rose City’s jammers were able to exploit the smallest slivers of track they could find by tip-toeing through for another 67 points to end the game at 236 for Rose City and 96 for VRDL.

Scald Eagle and tournament MVP Loren Mutch were responsible for scoring all but 17 of Rose City’s points with 132 and 87, respectively. VRDL’s top scorers were Giles with 37 points and Christy Demons with 29.

Rose City took 1st place at the tournament and goes into Championships with a bye as a 1 seed. In Nashville they will face either Windy City Rollers or Rocky Mountain Rollergirls in Game 6. VRDL maintained their 2nd place seeding and will play Minnesota Roller Girls in Game 3 at Championships.

Final Score

(1) Rose City Rollers 236
(2) Victorian Roller Derby 96