Duluth, MN

St. Chux Holds Back Treasure Valley to Advance to Semis

By Vile Love It

With a win earlier in the day, 8 seed Treasure Valley Rollergirls (Boise, ID) earned the right to meet the 1 seed St. Chux Derby Chix (O’Fallon, MO) in the final action-packed game of Friday night. The teams were well matched in style of play, strategies, speed and even stature.

Photo by Danforth Johnson

Both teams had a solid cadre of jammers that could split the opposing blockers while dancing and spinning their way through the pack. And each team also had a crew of blockers that could recycle those dancing jammers for half of the track.

St. Chux earned the No. 1 seed spot with a stellar record this year of 9-1 in sanctioned play. They only lost to Arizona Roller Derby in a very close game (216-200). Treasure Valley’s record was 4-6 however they played Division 1 powerhouses like Bay Area, Oly and Rose City.

St. Chux and Treasure Valley traded leads early on in the game and kept the score tight. About 10 minutes into the game it was a 1-point game. However, with penalties beginning to rack up on the Treasure Valley side, St. Chux was able to pull away.

At the half St. Chux was leading 103-74.

Throughout the game the teams evenly split lead jam (19-19). What they didn’t evenly split was penalties. Treasure Valley, competing in their second game of the day, collected 47 trips to the box; 13 of those were jammer penalties. St. Chux, on the other hand, only had 27 box trips, and 9 of those were jammer penalties. Going into the second half Treasure Valley had several players at risk of fouling out.

At the start of the second half it seemed that fatigue had joined the Treasure Valley bench. Their jammers were getting recycled more often and their blocker split up more easily.

But just when you thought that Treasure Valley might be running out of steam and St. Chux was going to head into blowout territory, the team from Boise found another gear. With 13 minutes left they pulled within 41 points.

In the next jam, Treasure Valley kept the momentum going and grabbed lead jam, calling it after 3 points and holds St. Chux at 0 for the jam. But this didn’t put off the St. Chux skaters and shortly thereafter, when Treasure Valley’s Demolition Barbie (#1959) headed to the box on a track cut, St. Chux hits the gas and pulled ahead 175-125.

Around the eight-minute mark, five of Treasure Valley’s blockers were sitting on six penalties while only 1 of St. Chux players had five penalties.

With just over three minutes left in the bout, three Treasure Valley skaters fouled out in a single jam. This left the team with only 10 skaters and two of them, including Udaho (#208), of their regular jammers, at six penalties.

St. Chux used the clock to their advantage as well as strong, strategic defense to hold onto the lead while Jedi Knight-N-Gale (#4CE) collected 20 points on a power jam towards the end of the game. In the end, the ability of St. Chux to play with fewer penalties earned them the right to move into the semifinals.

Final score

(1) St. Chux Derby Chix 229
(8) Treasure Valley Rollergirls 149

St. Chux advances to play the Fabulous Sin City Rollergirls of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the semifinals at 2 pm CDT Saturday. Treasure Valley will play the Omaha Rollergirls (7 seed) at 6 pm Saturday.