Cleveland, OH

By Lexistential Crisis

After winning their first game, the Oklahoma Victory Dolls All Star Squad (Seed 9) progressed to play Santa Cruz Derby Girls Boardwalk Bombshells (Seed 1) at the 2015 International WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs Cleveland. After a day full of close games, Santa Cruz took a large win over Oklahoma to defend their top seed and move into the semifinals.

Photo by Joshua Morrison Photography

Oklahoma held a small lead for the first five jams of the game, but Santa Cruz slowly distanced their score throughout the first half. Santa Cruz’s jammers earned lead jammer status for all but five jams and used their agility and strength to get through Oklahoma’s walls. Oklahoma blockers E-BOMB, Menace, Jennatease, and Esha Spades worked together to stop Santa Cruz’s jammers and keep their scoring limited. Both teams utilized quick offense during power jams and often switched quickly between offense and defense to help their jammers. 15 minutes into the game the score was 64 for Santa Cruz and 11 for Oklahoma. Oklahoma continued to score, but Santa Cruz was able to hold their jammers longer and get through the pack easier for more points. At the end of the half the score was 122-36.

Santa Cruz started the second half strong and continued to build to their lead. Shamrock N. Roller, CoraZone, Chelsea Smile, and Hellth Hazard continued to create strong walls to prevent Oklahoma’s jammers from scoring while Santa Cruz’s jammers found their way through Oklahoma’s walls to score 131 points in the second half. Most jams began with both jammers leaning and pushing into a very slow scrum start. Santa Cruz’s jammers were more successful at finding space in the clump of skaters. Oklahoma was held scoreless for seven jams in the middle of the second half. Polly Punching Pocket broke the scoreless streak during a power jam with about eight minutes left in the game. A few double digit jams from Oklahoma’s jammers allowed them to score more in the second half than they did in the first and bring their final score to 90 against Santa Cruz’s 256.

TARAism led scoring with 83 points and her Santa Cruz teammates Roasted Pony and Frisky Biscuits scored 63 and 55 points, respectively. Czech 1-2 and Fatal Inferno both scored 32 points for Oklahoma. Jammer penalties didn’t affect much in this game, as both teams had five jammer penalties in the first half and six in the second. Santa Cruz committed 12 more penalties than Oklahoma overall. Santa Cruz will play Treasure Valley or Demolition City tomorrow at 2:00 PM Eastern and Oklahoma will play Brandywine, Treasure Valley, or Demolition City tomorrow at 4 pm Eastern.

FINAL SCORE

Santa Cruz Derby Girls (#1) 256
Oklahoma Victory Dolls (#9) 90