Sacramento, CA

By Vile Love It

The No. 8 seed Kansas City Roller Warriors (Kansas City, KS) topped New Hampshire Roller Derby in their first game of the day (178-97) to earn the chance to take on the No. 1 seed Gotham Girls Roller Derby in a game that saw the superb Gotham game play keep Kansas off the scoreboard, but not out of the action.

***Photo by David Costa

Kansas used a variety of techniques to try and stem the Gotham tide, but none of them except a solid, swarming wall, did much to stop Gotham’s Bonnie Thunders, Suzy Hotrod, Vicious Van GoGo and Miss Tea Maven. Kansas’ only points of the first period came from Rump Wrecker, who was escorted off the track by medics midway through the first period.

What Kansas did win in the first half was the penalty board. Gotham racked up 22 trips to the penalty box compared to Kansas City’s 14. However, Kansas had 2 jammer penalties to Gotham’s crystal clean jammer performance. By the half, Gotham’s Violet Knockout and Mick Swagger both sat on 5 penalties and the score was 248-8.

It was clear during the second period that Gotham adjusted its game play where penalties were concerned. They reduced their penalty trips to 7 in the second half.

They did not reduce the defensive pressure on the Kansas City Warriors, though, and kept Kansas City to 9 points in the second half. In doing that, the Gotham pressure contributed to Kansas City’s increased penalties. They went up to 20 trips in the second period.

It was clear that the Gotham defense wore greatly on Kansas City’s jammers who struggled to pull out the fast bursts of agility that they needed to get through Gotham’s walls. When Kansas City was able to keep their walls together, they gave the same treatment to Gotham’s jammers. In the end though, Gotham’s conditioning, agility and control won the game.

Final score:

(1) Gotham Girls Roller Derby 519

(8) Kansas City Roller Warriors 17