Detroit, MI

By Lois Slain

The Bear City Roller Derby (#10) burst out to a quick 44-0 lead over the Boulder County Bombers (#7) in the first game of the 2015 International WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs in Detroit, but that didn’t exactly set the tone for a game that would be filled with back-and-forth momentum shifts, largely driven by penalties. Bear City’s Berlin Bombshells ultimately held on to a large mid-game lead to take the win. While the win was technically an upset, Bear City’s win wasn’t much of a surprise as they pulled off multiple upset wins during the 2014 D2 Playoffs in Kitchener-Waterloo on their path to the 2014 D2 Championships.

Photo by Derby With Recess

The game got off to a rough start for Boulder as they ended up with three jammer penalties in the first three jams. Bear City took full advantage of the penalties, with a 15-point jam from Mia Missile, a 20-point jam from Master Blaster and a 4-0 jam by Donner Doro, who called the jam early to keep Boulder’s Deputease in the penalty box. After the first four jams, Bear City led 44-0.

However that lead quickly disappeared as Boulder held their opponents scoreless for the next five jams to even the score, pulling a couple penalties on Berlin jammers as well. With help of strong, braced walls and recycling from their blockers on defense, jammers Evol Love, Feist E. One and Smashalotapus brought their score up to 40-44.

Bear City called a timeout and, after some back-and-forth play that briefly allowed Boulder County to take a 1-point lead, slowly started to pull away. By halftime, Bear City grew their lead to 126-70 - a solid lead, but not out of reach for Boulder County.

Throughout the first half, Boulder frequently positioned their blockers at the pivot line to start. Bear City responded by keeping their wall of blockers at the back and using a player in the middle to maintain a legal pack. That player often went up to play quick offense for her jammer, as well, leading to a larger percentage of lead jam calls for Bear City. Boulder County seemed to adjust their strategy during halftime and both teams came back from the half with stronger, slower braced wall formations that slowed down jammers on both teams.

Bear City again started off strong in the second half, with their top jammers Master Blaster and Mia Missile putting up an additional 13 points in the first two jams. Boulder County put up a few points in the next jam but their momentum was halted again iin Jam 4, as Deputease picked up a forearm penalty on her scoring pass followed by a low block just after re-entering the track, bring the score to 164-179.

At this point, the Berlin team began showing some signs of penalty trouble, with jammers Mia Missile, Donner Doro and Master Blaster all picking up penalties, squandering lead status but helping them run down the clock as jams ran the full two minutes. Three of Bear City’s heavy rotation blockers were also at risk of fouling out, having already earned six penalties by early in the second period.

Boulder County and Bear City traded low-scoring jams, keeping the point spread largely the same, until Jam 15 opened up what might have been a game-changing opportunity for Boulder County if there were more time on the clock. With about 7 minutes left in the game, Bear City blocker Emmazon fouled out and top-scoring jammer Master Blaster was expelled for an egregious forearm after scoring 128 of her team’s points.

However, the remaining Bear City players were able to limit the damage, using strong defense and smart offensive maneuvers, including star stashes and passes, to keep Boulder County from running away with it. In the penultimate jam, Boulder’s top scorer Smashalotapus piled 26 unanswered points on the board over two minutes, allowing Boulder to call a timeout for a final jam. However, Bear City’s Mia Missile quickly earned lead jammer status and called the game after putting a couple more points on the board.

FINAL SCORE

Boulder County Bombers (#7) 172
Bear City Roller Derby (#10) 237