Evansville, IN

Arizona Dusts Toronto

By Ninja Sass'em

Arizona's Tent City Terrors (seed #10, ranked #39) continued their tournament upset run by overthrowing Toronto's CN Power (seed #6, ranked #23), taking the win 167-137 in game 11 of the international Division 1 WFTDA playoffs in Evansville, Indiana.

Toronto jumped onto the scoreboard first with 2 back-to-back 4-0 jams giving them the early 8-0 lead over Arizona.

It was Loca Lena to first post up points for AZRD. First striking with 4 and then 5 after a box cut by BelleFast, bringing the score to 14 Toronto, 9 Arizona.

Atomatrix looked to extend that lead in Jam 9 calling if off after scoring 14. AZRD takes the lead 23-14. Arizona’s Luz Chaos showed off some fancy footwork versus Dusty, who was caught up behind Arizona blockersToaster, Sigmund Droid and Pushy Tushy, to extend their lead by 4.

Atomatrix capitalized on a stuck CN power jammer who eventually passed to Ames to Kill but stuffed her with a 9-0 jam.

AZRD led by 24 points with 15:30 left to play when Atotmatrix received a track cut immediately following being awarded lead jammer. This allowed a Toronto power jam. However, Motorhead Molly signaled the call-off and the jam ref blew it dead, triggering an illegal procedure penalty against Molly. A subsequent Toronto official review failed to overturn the call.

Jammers traded seats in the penalty box over the next several jams, as there were 7 track cuts in 3 jams between the two teams. This prevented either team from pulling away and, with 7 minutes on the period clock, AZRD still held lead 60-48.

Jam 19 finally saw some movement in the point spread as Atomatrix put up 4 points before calling it off. AZRD's Captain, Pushy Tushy scored a 4-0 shutdown on Toronto during a non-lead jam run extending Arizona's lead to 68-48.

In the final jam of the first half, Toaster, Corpse,Blok N dekher held Dusty back while Atomatrix put the pedal down and extended AZRD's lead to 84-55.

At halftime both teams were lower than the average penalty carry for this tournament cycle with CN Power showing only 15 versus AZRD's 18.

"We had a talk about being accountable for our time off the track," said Toaster from AZRD. "More on the floor means the more we score." – An excellent mantra to have coming off Friday's penalty festival against Texas.

During the 2nd jam of the second half, Luz Chaos took off like a rocket while Toronto jammer Dyna Hurtcha was trapped behind a desert wall of black and even after a star pass to Ames to Kill, Toronto was unable to score. Luz blasted 19 points onto the board and Arizona led108-57 with 23 minutes left to play.

"It wasn't the defense,” said Candy Crossbones of Toronto. "What got us was their offense; we couldn't keep our walls together."

A jammer track cut swap in Jam 11 meant this would go the full two minutes. A second cut by Pushy Tushy and a forearm by Kookie Doe would make the jammers do-si-do again. A third jammer penalty in the same jam for Toronto meant AZRD would start jam 12 unopposed.

Luz Chaos took full advantage of this power jam and raced to a throw up 24 points while Kookie Doe crumbled.

With 10 minutes left to play in the game, Luz again took lead and put up another 9 points while Toronto’s jammer remained trapped, despite another star pass.

The two teams went almost point-for-point over the next 15 minutes with neither team gaining ground. A Loco Lena power jam ended with a back block while Dyna Hurtcha broke from the penalty box to run into the stubborn black wall again. At the two minute mark AZRD still held a solid 167-113 lead.

The Toronto jammer put up a cool 15 points in the last jam, capitalizing on back-to-back Luz Chaos penalties but it proved too little too late as the Tent City Terrors took the win over CN Power 167-137.

AZRD advances to play Nashville on Sunday at 2 pm CDT and is guaranteed to finish no lower then 6th place after entering the tournament as the 10 seed. Toronto will play Steel City Roller Derby at 12 pm CDT.