Cleveland, OH

By Lexistential Crisis

Game 9 of the 2015 International Division 2 Playoffs in Cleveland determined one team that will be traveling to St. Paul for the WFTDA Championships. Santa Cruz, California’s Santa Cruz Derby Girls Boardwalk Bombshells (Seed #1) took 2nd Place at the first Division 2 Championship in 2013, but will not be returning to Championships this year. Demolition City Roller Derby Dynamite Dolls (Seed #5) of Evansville, Indiana, led the entire game and will have the chance to become Division 2 Champions in November.

Photo by Andrew Keyes

Demolition City built up a small lead in the first five minutes to make the score 21-5. The following seven jams (and over ten minutes) each featured a power jam. Santa Cruz’s jammers received seven penalties in that time while Demolition City’s jammers received three penalties. Through all of the power jams the pack remained slow with strong, defensive walls from both teams. Bangs Mccoy, Shelby N. Pain, Stepheree, and Flex A. Belle all worked to keep Santa Cruz’s jammers from scoring while also aiding their own jammers during power jams. After those seven jams, there were about six minutes left in the half and Demolition City still held a lead of 77-26. Santa Cruz’s jammers worked hard to catch up to Demolition City as they brought their score to 45 while their teammates' defensive strategies kept Demolition City to 80 at the half.

The second half was also dominated by strong defensive walls, as blockers were able to halt jammers and often kept the pack from progressing past turn two. Santa Cruz more than doubled their score in the second half while also outscoring Demolition City 92 points to their 85. Santa Cruz was able to keep Demolition City’s jammers in the pack longer thanks to Shamrock N. Roller, Beans, Jem Jones, and Skirt Vonna-Gut working well with their teammates. Jammers TARAism, Queen Litigious, and CoraZone brought Santa Cruz’s score within 10 points of Demolition City with about 17 minutes left in the game. Demolition City expanded their lead from 98-88 to 122-106 at the 10-minute mark. The rest of the game included jammer penalties in every jam, mostly to Santa Cruz’s jammers. Demolition City took advantage of these opportunities, as Bambi ThumpHer and Lickety-Splint scored a collective 43 points in the final five jams. This brought their final score to 165 over Santa Cruz’s 137.

Photo by Danforth Johnson

Lickety-Splint and Bambi ThumpHer scored the majority of Demolition City’s points with 55 and 47 points, respectively. Queen Litigious led scoring for Santa Cruz with 46 points. Jammer penalties made up one-third of Santa Cruz’s total penalties, and each team had a skater foul out at the very end of the game.

Demolition City will play either Houston or Kansas City in the championship game tomorrow at 6:00 PM Eastern. They will be traveling to St. Paul, Minnesota for the 2015 International WFTDA Championships. Santa Cruz will play in the 3rd place game tomorrow at 4:00 PM against Houston or Kansas City.

Final Score

Santa Cruz Derby Girls (#1) 137
Demolition City Roller Derby (#5) 165