Jacksonville, FL

By Whacks Poetic

Two former East Region teams faced off in the second quarterfinal at the 2015 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Jacksonville today. London Rollergirls from London, UK, entered this tournament as the top seed and Steel City Roller Derby entered as the. Steel City had already won a game first thing Friday morning to make it to the quarterfinal.

Photo by Ryan Quick

“We knew it would be tough having played a game this morning. Having to play that buy-in round and then facing a 1 or 2 seed the same day is a challenge,” said Steel City’s Coach Dad.

London ran a four-jammer rotation with blocker/jammer Stefanie Mainey leading the way. Steel City stuck with the three-jammer rotation that carried them to their morning win. If Gotham Girls Roller Derby operates with a hive mind, London is a machine-groomed robot. The team ran every jam with precision, running out the time on penalties when possible, manipulating pack definition when needed and putting up monstrous points per jam. Steel City seemed to have a hard time adapting from the Stef Mainey-style pushing through the pack to the fast footwork with explosive speed changes offered up by Rogue Runner, Trisha Smackanawa and Lexi Lightspeed. While standout blocking by Steel’s Nick Rollfiliac would often send London skaters flying, it was not enough and London won, 408-42.

The game started with a 28-0 jam by Stefanie Mainey which was followed by a 8-0 jam for Steel City jammer, Leanne Groll. However, Steel City would not score more points until 15 minutes had passed, with Leanne Groll putting up 2 points to Mainey's 24 in the ninth jam of the game, a jam that also saw Stefanie Mainey switch to playing a defensive jammer role and pulling a track cut off of Leanne Groll. This brought the score to 151-10 for the British skaters. There would be two more jams where Steel City won the points race -- a 7-0 jam by Snot Rocket Science where she lapped London jammer Trisha Smackanawa who was contained by the Steel City blockers. The final jam of the first period would go in Steel's favor 13-12 as it ran two minutes after lead jammer Lexi Lightspeed picked up only the second jammer penalty for London in the period. As halftime flashed on the scoreboard, the score was 235-30 in favor of London.

“At halftime, we were positive. We wanted to spend the second half honing our second pass defense and getting our jammers out quickly. We didn't want London jammers skating laps around the pack with no one touching them,” Coach Dad said.

Photo by Ryan Quick

The second half would see London jammer Rogue Runner join her fellow London star-wearers in a 20+ point jam, which meant all London jammers had at least one. In the fourth jam, Snot Rocket Science earned lead and two points and, much like the first half, London subsequently held Steel scoreless for the next 15 minutes until Rock Hard Candy stole four points with an amazing apex jump when London called the jam late. Throughout the period, Steel grew stronger and stronger at dealing with London's jammers using amazing body rotation and muscle finesse to do the seemingly impossible.

“They threw a lot of tricks at us. We constantly were trying to adapt and need to work out some chinks in our armor that Steel highlighted,” London skater, Raw Heidi said. “It was great to win against them after they were one of the first teams to ever come to England and they showed us our flaws then. They definitely highlighted some flaws again this time.”

For the last 10 minutes of the game, London scored no more than 7 points in a jam, consistently calling it right before the Steel City jammer would earn a point. At the end of the game, Lexi Lightspeed was the top point scorer for London with 141 points but the final jam finished with Stefanie Mainey picking up lead jammer to maintain her 100% lead jammer status and a clean 4 points, much like the rest of her jamming, 408-42.

“Honestly, it was great to play London. The London skaters are so nice and positive and we were excited to have the opportunity,” Coach Dad said.

London moves on to play the Atlanta Rollergirls in the semifinals at 2 p.m. EDT Saturday. Steel City will move on to the consolation bracket, next playing at 6 p.m. EDT Saturday.

Final Score

London Rollergirls (#1) 408
Steel City Roller Derby (#8) 42