Cleveland, OH

By Lexistential Crisis

The first game of the 2015 International WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs in Cleveland came down to the final jam as the Saint Chux Derby Chix Pack in Black (Seed 7) of O’Fallon, Missouri, played Brandywine Roller Girls Belligerents (Seed 10) of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Both teams were in Duluth for Division 2 Playoffs last year, but they have never played each other. As with many teams in Divison 2, St. Chux and Brandywine were very well matched and the game was full of lead changes.

Photo by Danforth Johnson

Skinny Guinea of Brandywine scored the first points of the game in a very quick and simple first jam. The second jam of the game featured the first three jammer penalties, as Brandywine’s Lurz Lemon cut the track on her initial pass and again upon returning to the track while St. Chux’s Psychokid D Freakout received a back block penalty. The rotating jammers allowed both teams to score and St. Chux ended the jam with 11 points to Brandywine’s 9. St. Chux continued their momentum into the next jam when Jedi Knight-n-Gale began as the only jammer on the track. Her teammates kept the pack slow with passive offense and allowed her to push through the Brandywine wall for lead and 8 additional points. Brandywine responded in the next jam by more than doubling their score to take the lead with 20 points over St. Chux’s 19.

Brandywine briefly held the lead until their jammer Lurz Lemon went to the box. Captain Rapid ArrhythMIA worked well with blocker Slamshine Allie to limit St. Chux’s scoring, but Jedi Knight-n-Gale still managed to score enough to give St. Chux a 2-point lead with about 20 minutes left in the first half. The lead changes continued for the next 10 minutes until Brandywine was able to build a lead going into halftime. Thanks to strong defense from Brandywine’s blockers, St. Chux was held to 72 points for five jams while Brandywine expanded their lead the largest of the game with 111 points. St. Chux’s finished the half strong as Psychokid D Freakout scored 14 points while her teammate Whip L’Ash held back Brandywine’s jammer to keep them from scoring. At halftime the score was 111 to 86 in favor of Brandywine.

A few seconds into the first jam of the second half, Brandywine’s jammer Skinny Guinea committed a back block penalty and St. Chux was able to close the gap by using both passive and active offense to help their jammer through the pack. St. Chux increased their score to 100 while keeping Brandywine to 111. Brandywine successfully maintained their lead for most of the second half. However, with only six minutes left in the game, Brandywine’s jammer Raggedy Aneurysm cut the track and Jedi Knight-n-Gale scored 28 points to put St. Chux into the lead for the first time in the second half. The score was 173-163 and both teams had skaters in danger of fouling out in the last few jams of the game. Out of Play penalties were the most commonly called penalties and Brandywine committed 10 more penalties than St. Chux throughout the entire game.

With about two minutes left in the game, Brandywine’s jammer Buenos D. A$$ received her only penalty of the game, but was still able to score 12 points while St. Chux scored 9. With 21 seconds on the clock, Brandywine used their first timeout of the game to squeeze in another jam. Before the final jam, St. Chux still had a 10-point lead with 185 over Brandywine’s 175. Raggedy Anneurysm earned lead jammer status for Brandywine, but Jedi Knight-n-Gale was not far behind her. Both jammers traded scoring passes for the entire two minutes and ended the jam evenly with 21 points each. The final score was 206-196 in favor of St. Chux.

St. Chux advances in the tournament to play at 4 pm Eastern against Kansas City Roller Warriors. Brandywine will play either Treasure Valley Roller Derby or Demolition City Roller Derby Saturday at 10 am Eastern.

Final Score

St. Chux Derby Chix 206
Brandywine Rollergirls 196