Duluth, MN

Big Easy Advance as Tucson Holds On Through the Last Jam

By Lois Slain

The first day of the 2014 WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs in Duluth, Minnesota, continued to serve up nail-biting matchups among the closely ranked teams. In Game 3, Tucson Roller Derby (6 seed, #53), of Tucson, Arizona, had the crowd on their feet as they came within a jam of upsetting the Big Easy Rollergirls (3 seed, #48), of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Photo by Danforth Johnson

Every time it seemed like Big Easy was going to start running away with the game, Tucson fought back and kept the score competitive.

About halfway through the first period, Tucson was down by about 40 points and Big Easy had been gaining steadily, but an 18-point jam from Mystery Meat started Tucson on a scoring run that brought them within 4 points of Big Easy.

As the first period neared its conclusion, Tucson’s defense, led by the forceful and omnipresent Blaxican Bomber, seemed to get a handle on heavy rotation Big Easy jammer Coalminer’s Slaughter, keeping her to only 3 points over 4 jams. This opened the opportunity for Tucson’s jammers to continue to keep the score close.

At halftime, Big Easy led 99-93. The women from New Orleans exploded into the start of the second period, again launching a seemingly unstoppable scoring run. After three jams, they again led by about 40 points.

Tucson took a timeout to reset, and was able to slow Big Easy down but wasn’t able to add many points of their own to the board. With about 10 minutes left in the game, Big Easy led 169-110.

But Mystery Meat again reinvigorated her team, going on a 28-point tear while her blockers kept Abeata Applebum, another top scorer for Big Easy, wrapped up tight in the pack. With additional points from Death Proof and Pixie Axe, Tucson called the jam and used a timeout to stop the clock at 16 seconds.

The final jam started with promise for Tucson as Mystery Meat quickly emerged with lead jammer status and blasted through for what seemed like a quick scoring pass. However, she was assessed a track cutting penalty, meaning the jam would run 2 minutes and Big Easy’s Abeata Applebum was free to rack up unopposed points. After serving her penalty, Mystery Meat returned to the track but was quickly called for another track cut, which was also her 7th penalty.

With no time left on the period clock and the opposing jammer fouled out, the Big Easy players began celebrating on the track as the final seconds of the jam ran down.

Final score

(3) Big Easy Rollergirls 204
(6) Tucson Roller Derby 186

Big Easy advances to the semifinals to play the winner of Game 5 at 4 p.m. CDT Saturday. Tucson will play Suburbia Roller Derby at 12 p.m. CDT on Saturday.