Dallas, TX

by Vile Love It

The game for fifth place was a tale of two periods between the 6 Seed (and host) Dallas Derby Devils #24 and the 8 Seed Crime City Rollers #30. The first period was often a slow tight battle between the teams. Where penalties sunk Dallas in previous WFTDA Playoffs games, today they reined in the over-aggressiveness and pulled away from Crime City in the second period and skated away with the win.

Photo by Duane Baker

Most of the first period was Crime City’s. Early on Crime City jammer Curly Haar pulled out a 15 point jam while her blockers kept Miley Virus hitting the refresh button on the jam. Crime City wasn’t able to stymie Miley often, she was Dallas’ top scorer with 98 points for the game, without a single penalty.

Crime City had an early 16 point lead, but that was their biggest point lead of the game and once Dallas overtook Crime City’s score, they didn’t let go until the final whistle blew.

The penalty box was the main character in the tale of this game. Crime City had 50 penalties (9 of them by jammers) whereas Dallas had 22 penalties (only 2 of which were jammer penalties).

This wasn’t always Dallas’ game modus operandi. In their previous games in this Playoffs they had 36, 37 or 38 total penalties (6, 10 and 12 jammer penalties). In their quest for the top of the consolation bracket, they adjusted their game play to limit their box trips and it clearly won them the game.

Photo by Donalee Eiri

Crime City and Dallas had similar strategies and strengths. Both teams had strong, agile jammers and tough, agile blockers. When each team was 3 or 4 blockers strong, they recycled and kept those jammers in the pack. In some jams it took an entire minute for a jammer to get out for lead jam. But when the siren song of the penalty box rang out, and it often rang for Crime City, the jammers slipped through and stacked up the points.

Dallas began to pour on the heat towards the end of the first period. With 5:35 left in the first period, Dallas’ Miley Virus scored a 20-point jam and propelled her team into a 73-55 lead.

At halftime the score was 82-66 with Dallas in the lead.

During the second period, Dallas began to pull ahead and Crime City consistently filled the penalty box. Two of Crime City’s blockers fouled out: Tjutet fouled out about halfway through the second period and Juicy Butther fouled out towards the end of the game. There were jams where Crime City was down to 1 blocker.

Between the dearth of Crime City blockers on the track and the 6 power jams in Dallas’ favor, Dallas was able to sprint away with the win.

FINAL SCORE

Dallas Derby Devils (#5) 205
Crime City Rollers (#8) 109