Kitchener-Waterloo, ON

By Vile Love It

Just because teams are in the “consolation” bracket of Playoffs does not mean that the action is anything less than fast and furious. The 6 seed Boulder County Bombers (Boulder, CO) and the 8 seed Demolition City Roller Derby (Evansville, IN) skaters demonstrated this to fans in a game that was tighter than newly laced up skates.

Photo by Paul Devisser

Tight is an understatement. There were seven lead changes in the first period (three of them in one jam alone) and the score stayed within three points for six jams.

There were only 17 jams in each period because so many of the jams ended up going the full two minutes while jammers battled the epic, recycling defensive walls again and again. Sometimes it took upwards of an entire minute to award lead jam.

While the action was hot on the track, at times, the action was equally hot around the outside as the skaters hurried to the penalty box one after the other. But both teams seemed equally afflicted and affected by the penalties. In total, Boulder County had 39 penalty trips (10 by their jammer) and Demolition had 34 trips to the box (8 by their jammer).

“We really always try to play our game. We tend to play a slow game with tight walls and avoiding penalties,” said Boulder’s MissFortune Cookie (#5). “Our jammers focused on getting lead. Unfortunately, we didn’t do as good of a job on that as we should have today.

“We wish the game would have gone in our favor but the skaters from Demolition were great to play against and we had fun with them during the extensive official reviews.”

The teams were matched in defensive styles using tripod and tractor-trailer blocking to their advantage. The teams were able to capitalize on their power jams and stymie the opposing jammer when they were defending a power jam. Blockers on both sides were effective at leading the jammers to the lines, knocking them out and bringing them, and the rest of the pack, back.

Going into halftime the score was 103-107 with Demolition in the lead, however they also had three players who had been assessed five penalties in the first period. Boulder had two players with four penalties.

In the second period Demolition was able to hold onto their lead, albeit a small one, for most of the period and only gave it up once towards the end of the game. Going into the last jam, the team from Evansville held a somewhat comfortable 20 point margin. But this game was anything but comfortable for either team.

With Demolition’s jammer in the box, it looked as if Boulder had a chance until their jammer, Feist E. One (#815) was called out on a penalty and their ability to make up the 20 point deficit was cut short by 8 points. Demolition’s Stepheree (#81) grabbed 3 points and her team took home the win and will move on to play No. 2 seed Queen City in Saturday’s 6 p.m. game. Boulder will play against Grand Raggidy Roller Girls in Sunday’s 10 a.m. game.

“After yesterday’s game we talked about whether or not to look at the scoreboard. We focused on the fact that every jam was a new jam and to let the last one go,” said Demolition Captain Shelby N. Pain (#75) “Everyone did a good job on that today. We learned from our previous game and moved forward.

“We know that penalties make or break a game. During yesterday’s game we had 12 out of play calls and we knew that we had to look at that closely and adjust our game. Again, we learned from yesterday’s game and made adjustments in how we were playing.”

Final Score

(8) Demolition City Roller Derby 194
(6) Boulder County Bombers 183