Jacksonville, FL

By Whacks Poetic

In the first game of 2015 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Jacksonville, the audience was treated to perennial playoff league, Steel City Roller Derby from Pittsburgh, PA take on playoff returnees Pike's Peak Derby Dames from Colorado Springs, CO who made their return to the WFTDA playoff track after a 5-year hiatus. Steel City was more able to hit the ground skating and managed to squeak out a 209-205 win the first game of the tournament, in large part due to a 35-0 lead they built after the first two jams.

Photo by Ryan Quick

Trick Pony, Pike's Peak skater: “We started the season at 105 and we had the goal of D2 playoffs. We hustled, we practiced and built muscle memory and started winning. We changed our goal. We knew we could make D1 and the more we played together, the more we gelled.”

Steel City jumped to an early lead with 14-0 and 21-0 jams for Leanne Groll and Snot Rocket Science respectively. Pike's Peak soon started warming up, though, and put up 7 points of their own in the next two jams with Pepper Slay and Trick Pony donning the star. After a couple of multiple scoring pass jams, amazing defense by Pike's Peak led to a 3-0 2 minute jam for Steel City jammer Hurricane Heather with Colorado jammer Pepper Slay spending some time in the penalty box for a track cut. With just over 15 minutes gone, the teams were relatively even in lead jams but Steel was better able to capitalize on those chances, leading 74-38. Another track cut against a Pike's Peak jammer again highlighted just how good the Colorado team can lock down their defense with a forced star pass to Hurricane Heather. Steel City managed to inch forward to a 43-point lead with that double power jam, 93-50. The first half would end similar to its' start with a 15-0 jam for Leanne Groll bringing the score to 131-72 for the Pennsylvanians.

Photo by Ken LeBleu

The score ratio didn't budge in the second half as the two teams tied 11-11 after four jams. Steel City kept their three-jammer rotation utilizing Leanne Groll, Snot Rocket Science and Rock Hard Candy. Pike's Peak shook things up a bit replacing Brenda Lee who had two jammer penalties in the first half with Pretty Penny who had previously been pivoting. It looked like Pike's Peak might have figured out their opponents, winning two leads to every one for Steel City. They closed the gap to under 50 points, 146-98 before Steel managed to start increasing their score once more, gaining four lead jams in a row and running up the score 188-110. Pike's Peak was not done though and, in a show of strength that should terrify their next opponents, pulled jammer penalties on Rock Hard Candy, Snot Rocket Science and Leanne Groll to pull the score back to single jam range 192-172 with seven minutes remaining. Pike's Peak shortened their bench, running the same blockers to end out the game jam after jam and narrowed their jammer rotation to Brenda Lee and Trick Pony. The final jam saw Brenda Lee line up against Snot Rocket Science with the score in favor of Steel 199-188. Pike's Peak took the lead for the first time in the game with 38 seconds left before Brenda Lee was sent to the box on a track cut, releasing Snot Rocket Science.

Snot Rocket Science, Steel City skater: “Coming out of the box all I was thinking was I had to skate clean and get through the pack. Normally this part of the game is my strong suit. I knew I had to rein it in and skate clean.”

Snot Rocket Science pulled out a full five-point final pass in contrast to Pike's Peak's 2 points and won the first game of the tournament, 209-205.

Steel City will go on to face the number one seeded London Rollergirls at 4pm Friday for their chance to make it to the semi-finals. Pikes Peak Derby Dames move to the consolation bracket and will face the loser of Jacksonville RollerGirls vs Detroit Derby Girls at 10 am tomorrow.

Final Score

Steel City Roller Derby (#8) 209
Pikes Peak Derby Dames (#9) 205