Duluth, MN

Detroit Advances to Semifinals After Strong Showing Against Brandywine

By Vile Love It

Early into Friday’s game 5, 2 seed Detroit Derby Girls (Detroit, Michigan) established control and power on the track over 10 seed Brandywine Rollergirls (Downingtown, Pennsylvania) and they never let it go.

Photo by Danforth Johnson

However, throughout the game, fans likely wondered, “What would this game look like if Brandywine was at full strength?” The team had only brought 11 skaters to the three-day tournament and two of those skaters were newer to their roster. In addition, they had lost four players from their regular roster.

Another question roaming the minds of fans might have been, “What would this game look like if Brandywine was fresh?” These skaters had played a tough game earlier against the No. 8 seed Omaha Rollergirls. Brandywine had pulled out the upset to advance to play Detroit (final score Brandywine 198 Omaha 144). It was clear early in the Detroit game, that fatigue was affecting the skaters from Downingtown.

In the first jam of the game Brandywine held a strong determined wall against Detroit’s Feta Sleeze (#45) while Detroit quickly lost two blockers to penalties. For a few minutes it looked as if Brandywine had a good chance. They held strong against Detroit’s jammers, and earned lead jam in 3 out of the first 5 jams. Back-to-back Brandywine jammer penalties then gave Detroit the leverage they needed to charge ahead. During the second of those power jams, Detroit’s Feta Sleeze (#45) grabbed 25 points bringing the score to 47-7.

Both teams’ penalty trips were fairly even throughout the game. Detroit had 32 box trips and Brandywine had 38. Detroit’s jammers sat seven times and Brandywine’s jammers sat nine. The difference was in the defense. To Brandywine’s solid crew of jammers, Detroit’s walls must have felt endless at times. Despite the amount of penalties the blockers had, they formed solid, calm cycling walls. They recycled Brandywine’s jammers forcing them to attack and re-attack the same walls.

Halfway through the first period Skinny Guinea (#9) worked for an entire lap to break through the Detroit defense.  She was visibly exhausted after she finally cleared the last blocker.  But she found an easier path on her scoring pass and tossed some points on the board.

At the half Detroit held a commanding lead, 162-54.

Brandywine was able to chip away at the score. They were smart and wily and grabbed the points that they could. Detroit seemed to score with a wrecking ball. Although Detroit had nine power jams, they didn’t need them to rack up the points. Throughout the entire game they had 15 high-scoring jams ranging from 13 points to 25 points. Brandywine was only able to capitalize on two of their power jams with 14-point jams.

Brandywine’s blockers didn’t begin to play much offense until towards the end of the game. Detroit peeled off a blocker early on to work offense. The strategy paid off with Detroit winning lead jam all but 13 times during the entire bout.

But the game was pretty much about Detroit’s defense and the pluck and persistence of Brandywine’s core crew of jammers: Not-Knotty (#273), Skinny Guinea (#9) and Buenos D. A$$ (#138).

The fatigue factor affected Brandywine’s blockers, too, and they were easily scattered in the second half and struggled to hold onto Detroit’s powerhouse jammers.

Both teams played hard and intensely until the very last whistle and despite the score, it was clear that both teams played every jam with the intent to win.

Final score

(2) Detroit Derby Girls 336
(10) Brandywine Roller Girls 82

Detroit advances to the semifinals to play the Big Easy Rollergirls at 4 pm CDT on Saturday. Brandywine moves on to the consolation bracket and will play the winner of Game 8 at 8 p.m. Saturday.