Columbia, SC

By Darci “Ninja” McAfee

In a surprisingly tight game, the Rose City Rollers Wheels of Justice from Portland, OR, USA the Atlanta Rollergirls Dirty South Derby Girls from Atlanta, GA, USA appeared cool, calm and collected. In the end, the defending WFTDA Champions Wheels of Justice (seed #1) rolled over the southerners and into the Sunday Championship matchup of the 2016 International WFTDA D1 Playoffs in Columbia, South Carolina, USA, besting the Atlanta (seed #4) squad 206-133.

Loren Mutch of Rose City grabbed lead and 19 points but Atlanta’s AfroDykee also put up four in the opening jam. Scald Eagle then adds four of her own with a quick call off. Jam 3 saw Licker ‘N Split boxed on a misconduct call and Atlanta’s Jean-Juke Picard got lead and only two points before calling it to keep the Rose jammer in the penalty box.

Merchant of Menace on power jam for ATL and rings up a 9-0 jam to bring the score 23-15 with Rosein the lead.

In a surprising move, Atlanta calls an Official Review with 22 minutes left in the half to request the illegal reentry penalty be removed from their blocker, but the call stands and the review is lost.

Scald Eagle tries to play a little jammer one-on-one defense off the start line against Slams McKenzie and gets boxed on a forearm penalty. But Slams releases Scald when she is penalized on a back block. The resulting two-minute jam ends in confusion when Slams attempts to star pass to an Atlanta blocker rather than the pivot Blaque Jack. Score is 36-23 in favor of Rose City, which calls a timeout.

Licker then jumps out to lead but is boxed on an Out of Play penalty. Atlanta can’t take advantage as Jean-Juke is also sent off on a penalty. Star pass to ATL’s Cupcake Curb Stomper ends the jam 9-2 in favor of Rose.

Rose’s Frisky Biscuits is called on a forearm penalty and opposing jammer Menace put up nine points bringing the score to 50-34 Rose.

AfroDykee then took the lead but a late call-off allows Rose to sneak in four points to her two points.

Licker is sent to the box for her third penalty, Blocking with the Head, and Menace is again on a power jam for Atlanta. She is able to rake in nine points while Atlanta captain Rebel Yellow and Natty Long Legs hold Rose scoreless.

Mutch answers back with an 18-0 jam while the Rose City blockers stick to Atlanta like glue, not allowing an inch.

Rapid Atlanta scoring of a four-point strike by Jean-Juke, a nine-point gain by Menace and a four-pointer by Dykee brings the score to within 21 points with only 4:15 left in the half.

But Licker and Frisky Biscuits of Rose retort soundly putting up 10 and 17 respectively to end the first half 111-63 Rose City.

Menace grabs lead and a power jam to start the second half as Mutch is boxed on a track cut. 5-0 jam for Atlanta.

An extended 23-minute timeout for water in the track’s referee lane — due to an air conditioning pipe leak in the ceiling — put everything on hold. THR, Code Adam in conjunction with Bambi Lance from Risk Management sorts out the issue so play can continue.

Back in action, Licker gave Menace a double power jam with two penalties in the same jam. Menace could only put up seven points due to the grinding defense of Rose City.

Atlanta uses its Official Review to request a subsequent insubordination penalty against Licker for failing to leave the track. Head Referee The Pantichrist states she did leave the track in a timely fashion and Atlanta is 0-2 on Official Reviews.

ATL’s Dykee grabs lead but is boxed on a cut call and a star pass to Rose’s Tarantula results in a 19-point power jam to Dykee’s five points. This ticked Rose up 137-95 with 17:23 left in the second half.

Menace proved over and over that she is dangerous on a power jam and grabs 10 unanswered points when Mutch cuts the track. Unfortunately for Atlanta, blocker Madditude Adjustment fouls out of the game with 14 minutes remaining.

Rose requests a cut call on Atlanta jammer AfroDykee at the 8:37 mark but the no-call stands and now Rose has also lost its review.

Scald Eagle then took a huge jersey whip off the line to quickly earn lead jammer. Slams McKenzie passed the star to Cupcake but Scald called off the jame after a 13-0 run.

Time is dwindling and even though Atlanta uses smart timeouts to stop the clock they just can not surmount the Rose City defense. With 2:30 remaining the Dirty South Derby Girls are down by 48 points.

Scald Eagle flies to the front to take lead jammer and runs the clock against Dykee. Scald makes multiple easy passes as Atlanta gets stuck and finally makes a star pass to erykah ba-doozie. A huge hit by Blaque Jack momentarily halts Scald but the jam ends on a 29-4 run. The score was 206-133 Rose with 24 seconds remaining and Atlanta uses its final timeout.

Loren Mutch puts the nail in the coffin for by grabbing lead and waiting for time to expire before calling it off. The final score holds at 206-133. Rose City advances to the first place game on Sunday and secures a spot in front of the hometown crowd at November’s WFTDA Championships in Portland.

Final Score

Rose City Rollers (#1) 206
Atlanta Rollergirls (#4) 133