Lansing, MI

By NoMad

Saturday afternoon in Lansing saw the Cincinnati Rollergirls Black Sheep from Cincinnati, OH USA (seed #4, WFTDA #48) run a route on the Grand Raggidy Roller Derby All Stars from Grand Rapids, MI USA. Cincinnati dominated for most of the game, and despite an ambitious 39-2 push from Grand Raggidy in the final two jams, they came out with a strong win, 292-126.

Photo by Jim Dier

Cincinnati started off the game with a comfortable 31-0 lead. Trying to grab some quick points at the start of jam 7 to close the gap for her team, Grand Raggidy jammer Mira Maheiney cut the track and was sent to the box—losing lead jammer status—but Cincinnati jammer Jas Hubbard gave us a jammer do-si-do by picking up a back block at the close of the jam.

Points and penalties were traded as both teams sped up and blockers became more frantic. Cincinnati jammers took advantage of some slow Grand Raggidy runbacks, bobbing and darting their way through scoring passes. While Grand Raggidy worked hard to continue putting points on the board, they couldn’t keep up with Cincinnati’s fast jammers who took their team to a 132-40 lead at the half.

“Felt good to come back after Brewhaha and Crush them,” said Cincinnati blocker La Bruja. Bruja made the crush literal in the closing moments of the first period when she single-handedly took Grand Raggidy’s high scoring jammer Ultrafox (41 game points) off the track with a great hit on the inside of turn three.

The second half started out like the first: Cincinnati taking control early, putting up lots of double-digit jams. But as the game went on, both teams began to lose cohesion in their walls, which increased the pack speed—along with the penalties. We saw the first foul out of the Lansing D2 Playoffs when Cincinnati’s La Bruja was sent off on her fourth direction of game play and her seventh penalty of the game.

“[Penalty trouble] has always been our bugaboo at tournaments,” Bruja admitted.

The foul outs would continue as Ringo Deathstarr and Hawaiian Punch of Grand Raggidy would soon leave the track with their seven penalties. A final foul came when Cincinnati’s Nuk’em picked up a forearm.

Jas Hubbard (75 game points) of Cincinnati continually showed incredible line work around the Grand Raggidy walls. The jamming duty was shared by high-scoring Wheezy (124 game points) and Royal T (49 game points). Grand Raggidy jammers aimed to close the gap stretched out by Cincinnati and gave a strong push by putting up a 24 and then a 15 point jam in the final minutes of gameplay. But it wasn’t enough to overtake the lead, and Cincinnati came away with the win, 259-126

“[In the last two jams] that was the real Grand Raggidy,” beamed Lil' HaHa, Grand Raggidy Head Coach. “We just pulled together.”

The Cincinnati Rollergirls Black Sheep will go on to face Bear City Roller Derby today at 6 p.m. EST. The Grand Raggidy All Stars will face Nidaros Roller Derby in the 9th place game on Sunday at 10 a.m. EST.

Final Score

Grand Raggidy Roller Derby (#10) 126
Cincinnati Rollergirls (#4) 259