Charleston, WV

By The Oxford Commakaze

In a fast-moving game that never gave the audience a chance to catch its breath (let alone the skaters), the Philly Roller Girls (seed 3, WFTDA #12) shut down the Boston Derby Dames (seed 6, WFTDA #22) 320-116 in the third game at the International 2014 WFTDA Division 1 playoffs, Charleston. After Boston climbed its way to the lead for a brief moment in the first half, Philly stole the lead again and never looked back.

Photo Tyler Shaw

Philly raced out the gate with a 7-0 lead in the first jam after VanEssa “V Diva” Sites, who quickly gained lead by pushing straight up the middle of the pack, lapping Boston jammer Maya Mangleyou in her first pass and picking up the points of two fallen Boston blockers in her second. After an illegal procedure at the very end of the first jam sent Maya to the penalty box, Philly jammer Brazilian Nut widened their lead to 25-6.

Philly continued to inch its lead wider for the next few jams, until Boston jammer Flyin’ King capitalized on a jammer penalty to Sites and snuck through the inside multiple times, putting 10 points on the board. For the next low-scoring jams, both teams took turns putting up a few points each. It looked like Jam 12 could be a game-changer for Boston, as jammer Lil’ Paine took advantage of a forearm penalty to Philly jammer Sites for 18 points, pulling Boston into a 47-45 lead, leading the Boston-loving crowd to burst into cheers of “Pinch! Pinch! Pinch!” Philly fielded Sites in the next jam, who apparently wasn’t tired after the previous jam – she put up 20 points of her own, snatching the lead away from Boston for good and bringing the score to 65-47.

Philly held Boston scoreless for seven jams, and only allowed them to put up three more points in the half. Relentless recycling by Philly kept Boston’s jammers busy, and although Boston’s Shark Week and America Ferocious laid hit after bone-jarring hit on Philly’s jammers, fast footwork and aggressive blocking by Herrmann Monster and Clam Jammer saw them pushing past Boston’s defense. Penalties for both teams mounted, especially in the last jam of the half, in which the pack shrank to 2-2 and saw both team’s jammers end the jam in the penalty box, leaving the score at 144-58.

To start the second half, Boston’s Dottie Danger had to start the power jam from the penalty box as the jammer because Shark Week had passed the jammer star to her at the end of the previous jam. Dottie had time to put up 5 points for Boston and call the jam while Ginger Kid and Space Invader made things difficult for the re-entering Brazilian Nut. With Philly dominating lead jammer calls for the next several jams, Boston had to fight to put points on the board, using swarming offense by their blockers to try to counter speed-stealing defense by Philly’s Tarantula and Russian Bayou. Meanwhile, Philly kept packs fast and controlled, drawing penalties on Boston’s jammers and blockers alike while their jammers pushed through walls and dodged hits on multiple passes. By the halfway point of the second half, Philly had widened its lead to 221-82.

Boston was able to put 10 points up in the next jam, its biggest single-jam score of the second half, after a clever hit-and-race-back by jammer Maya Mangleyou sent Herrmann Monster off for a track cut, but Philly snuck in four points at the end of the jam, too. Lil Paine stole 1 point to Sites’ 2 in the next jam, but a 22-point jam for Brazilian Nut following that widened the gap even further to 249-97. Impenetrable defense for Philly and lightning-fast juking by its jammers widened their lead, keeping Boston to no- or low-scoring passes even on power jams. By the last jam, Boston’s penalty trouble caught up with them, leaving America Ferocious as the sole Boston blocker for a short while. Brazilian Nut gained lead jammer for Philly, and although Shayna Nestor, jamming for the first time this game for Boston, was able to escape the pack, Nut called the jam off with no time remaining before she could earn any points.

“It was really amazing to watch my team really come together. We’ve come together all season in terms of bringing our strategy into a little more focus,” said Philly’s Clam Jammer. She added that even when the game was intensely close, “we took a time out to really bring back our focus so we could go out and execute our game with the precision we came in to do.” Boston’s Lil Paine said that although they love playing new teams at tournaments, they really enjoyed their game against Philly, whom they have played eight times. “Philly’s big, and they’re always pretty tough. It always feels familiar to play them,” she said. “A lot of those girls, we came up playing them developing over the years. We always know it’s going to be a hard game for us, but it doesn’t feel impossible.”

Philly will move on to play Saturday at 8 p.m. against the winner of the game between the Mad Rollin’ Dolls vs. Victorian Roller Derby League. Boston will play at 10 a.m. Saturday against the Jet City Rollergirls.

Final Score

(3) Philly Roller Girls 320
(6) Boston Derby Dames 116