Salt Lake City, UT

by Lois Slain

In their first game at the international 2014 WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs, the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls, of San Francisco, California, demonstrated why they earned the top seed for the tournament, putting up a solid win over 9 seed No Coast Derby Girls.

Photo by Chris Bojanower

It was the second game of the day for Lincoln, Nebraska’s No Coast, who squeaked out a 4-point upset win over 8 seed Oklahoma Victory Dolls to earn the right to challenge the top seed later in the day.

With No Coast jammer Christy Johnson cutting the track in the first jam, Bay Area held No Coast scoreless for the first 4 jams to take a 19-0 lead. Jammer penalties would plague No Coast throughout the first half, with seven box trips for their jammers compared to just one for Bay Area.

No Coast came back swinging in Jam 4, and Johnson picked up lead jammer status and was on her way to putting points on the board when she committed another penalty, this time a back block. Bay Area jammer Huck Sinn came out on the better end of that 2-minute jam, putting up 28 points to Johnson’s 8.

Although Bay Area ran up a 57-11 lead after the first 10 minutes, No Coast’s blockers were slowing down Bay Area’s jammers with heavy recycling and brutal hits, and using offense to keep the Californians from running up the score too much.

However, Bay Area excelled at both drawing penalties on the No Coast jammers and maximizing points during the penalty plays. Chantilly Mace banked 30 points, followed by 25 apiece for Nock Nock and Lulu Lockjaw.

Using offensive blocking, No Coast was able to recover their footing, slow the scoring run and put up a handful of points as the period wore down. But, following a team timeout, Bay Area ran out the first half with the game momentum and a 189-30 lead.

Bay Area came back from the halftime break with a reinvigorated defense. While No Coast’s jammers did a better job of staying out of the penalty box, they often stayed trapped between slow, solid walls of black and gold as the Bay Area jammers racked up the points. 10 minutes into the half, Bay Area built their lead to 265-37.

A few minutes later, No Coast jammer Anna Cassube picked up lead jammer status and 4 unanswered, the first time her team had held lead during the period. Seemingly buoyed by Cassube’s success, No Coast again began holding Bay Area to single scoring passes and picked up lead a few more times.

Bay Area came back with a massive scoring run to finish the game, adding 78 points to their total in the last four jams, for a final score of 376-55.

Bay Area moves on to play the Charm City Roller Girls, of Baltimore, Maryland, (4 seed). No Coast will play at 4 p.m. MDT in the consolation bracket.

Final Score

(1) B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls 376

(9) No Coast Derby Girls 55