Duluth, MN

Sin City Upsets Top Seed St. Chux

By Vile Love It

The Fabulous Sin City Rollergirls (5 seed, Las Vegas, Nevada) took on the 1 seed St. Chux Derby Chix (O’Fallon, Missouri) in a nailbiter of a game that featured everything good about roller derby. There were big hits, awesome jukes, crazy strategy, a bloody nose, foul outs, and solid, determined blocking. This game was anything but one sided. In the end, Sin City pulled out the upset and will move on to play for first place at this tournament. By winning this game they have already earned a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, in November to play in either the D2 Championship or Third Place game.

Photo by Wes Bailey

In the first jam, after a jammer was knocked out of bounds and the pack began to skate clockwise to pull her back farther, in an odd turn of events, everyone just kept skating in the wrong direction. The pack went an entire lap before the jammer was able to enter legally. Quickly after that the St. Chux jammer, Jedi Knight-N-Gale (#4CE) was sent to the penalty box on a track cut and Sin City took the opportunity to grab an early lead.

Shortly after that, Sin City’s jammer took off her helmet cover with the intention to pass it to her pivot who, at that moment, was assessed a penalty. The jammer had gotten hit and her nose was bleeding so she had to drop the jammer cover until she was allowed to go back. The pivot was released and St. Chux tried to prevent her from getting the cover. She managed to pick it up and get it on her helmet.

That wasn't the only star pass of the game. Shortly after that Sin City passed the star as soon as St. Chux won lead jam. It pressured St. Chux to call off the jam and stem the scoring tide.

St. Chux had several opportunities early in the first period as well, and they didn’t waste them. With several power jams and tight defense they held Sin City’s jammers, St. Chux was able to earn several high-scoring jams and about midway through the first period held the lead at 91-57.

With 9:42 left in the half, Sin City got a much-needed power jam. St. Chux’s defense held tight to the jammer while Sin City tried without success to play offense. But Sin City wasn’t down or out. Sin City began a rally and steadily chipped away at St. Chux’s lead. By the half they had narrowed the gap and the score was 95-87 in St. Chux’ favor.

The second period started out with both jammers heading to the box on simultaneous penalties. There was just enough time for both to hit the chairs before they were back in action again.

Sin City kept plugging away and pulled back into the lead.

Sin City had more penalties than St. Chux (45-39) although jammer penalties were pretty even (9 for St. Chux, 8 for Sin City). St. Chux had two players foul out with approximately 5 minutes left in the game and Sin City had one player hit the penalty max.

Both teams had amazing jammers with stellar footwork and persistence. Both teams had blockers that could shut down a jammer until she cried uncle. They cycled and recycled and swarmed and webbed around the jammers.

While the momentum might have seemed to be in Sin City’s favor, St. Chux hadn’t gotten that memo because they continued to recycle Sin City’s jammers and bust through their walls. They came close, they took a small lead briefly, but Sin City took it back and kept up the pressure.

The statistic that seemed to make the most difference was that of lead jam. Sin City earned lead jam more often than St. Chux (45-39). Sin City was able to get their points and shut St. Chux down in 13 jams during the second period. The small hit-it-and-quit-it gains made by Sin City won them the game.

Final score

(5) Fabulous Sin City Rollergirls 174
(1) St. Chux Derby Chix 141

Sin City will play the Detroit Derby Girls in the final game of the weekend, at 6 pm CDT, for 1st Place. St. Chux will play the Big Easy Rollergirls at 4 pm Sunday to determine 3rd Place.