Saint Paul, MN

by Shelly Shankya

The first jam between Angel City Derby Girls of Los Angeles, Calif., (Omaha #2) and the Rat City Rollergirls of Seattle, Wash., (Dallas #3) was a grinding slog of restlessness; the locked-in-action pack made a full rotation of the track only after 1:40 of the first jam had elapsed. Rat City’s Luna Negra took lead jammer but promptly got a back block call on her first scoring pass, leaving Satan's Little Helper a chance to skate unopposed and score 13 points. The jam lasted its full two minutes and, despite the jammer penalty, the scoreboard read only a two-point differential.

Photo by Donna Olmstead

Although slow, grueling pack play was evident in the first period, the teams also employed breakneck pace. The second jam was one such breakneck jam; it was so hotly contested that it ended in a brief injury call-off due to a high block and cut by Rat City jammer Kayla Gaska, whose two penalties resulted in a 14-0 jam for Angel City's Micki Kimmel. After the early jammer problems for Rat City, the team from Seattle cleaned up its jammer play and held the Scarlets scoreless for three jams, bringing the point spread back within reach, 32-26. When Rat City jammers played cleanly, their blockers put on a blocking clinic against the Angel City offense. Blockers Raven Seaward and Lacey Ramon expertly held Angel City jammers Satan's Little Helper and Darby Dagger, forcing them to skate all over the track, but never through the pack.

More jammer penalties — a cut from Gaska and Xena — put a pin in the scoring potential for Rat City, as Angel City blockers Hunnie Brasco and Soledad used positional blocking to keep Rat City at bay. The tight scrum in each jam made for difficult point accrual, and the tough-earned points made many an appearance in the second period which featured no fewer than five scoreless jams — jammers lacked neither speed nor will, but the blocking prowess of each team's defense proved a tough opponent.

During the first period, the Rat City Rollergirls felt like the underdog team, and they kept the score within reach despite having seven jammer penalties to Angel City's five. Their ability to keep things close was largely due to Rat City's ability to grab lead jammer status due to tight blocking by the All Stars. In the last three jams of the first half, the Rat City skaters brought the score to within 13 points; Angel City scored 83 to Rat City's 70 at halftime. The point distribution by jammers, however, was clearly different: Angel City spread the bulk of point scoring responsibility between three jammers, Satan's Little Helper (30), Chica Go Lightning (25) and Micki Kimmel (24). The points were less spread out for Rat City, as Luna Negra scored 35 and Xena scored 20 of the team's 70 points.

Photo by Steve Jurkovic

If the first period was a close exchange, the second half was the opposite; Angel City managed to outscore Rat City 86-31 over the course of the second period. The blocking intensity for the Scarlets increased tenfold, and the Rat City jammers suffered for it. In the first period the Seattle skaters nabbed lead jammer 12 times in 20 jams; they got lead jammer status in only five of 19 jams in the second. Los Angeles held Seattle scoreless for 15 of 19 jams, and of the four jams in which Rat City scored, only one jam was in the double digits, a 20-point jam for Rat City's Kayla Gaska.

"The first half was less like our style of play," Angel City captain and blocker Laci Knight said. "We were trying to do too much, and we had to calm down. We realized that we had to spend less time being interactive with Rat City and stay focused on our own game plan."

There was a definite momentum shift in Angel City's favor during the 13th jam of the second half as Luna Negra, the Rat City jammer, went to the box on a track cut. The Angel City blockers took control of the track, and the Rat City skating took a turn as things started to unravel. The tale of two periods went distinctly in Angel City's favor, as they managed lead jammer status 14 of 19 jams in the second, despite spirited exchanges between blockers. Angel City used its official review in with just under five minutes left in the game, hoping for an egregious high forearm call against jammer Gaska as she scored 20 points, but the no-call stayed in place, and the game ended only three jams after.

"We watched a lot of the team's [Rat City's] footage from games this season, and that helped," Knight said. "We played them maybe two years ago, and today they felt like an entirely different league. There were jammers we've never skated against, and we had to make the right adjustments."

Due to critical adjustments in the second half, Angel City skated away with the win against Rat City and advances to play London Rollergirls on Saturday at 10:00 a.m.

FINAL SCORE

Angel City Derby Girls (Omaha #2) 169
Rat City Rollergirls (Dallas #3) 101