DCRG vs. Burning River
The fans quickly filled up Champs Rollerdrome after the doors opened, in anticipation of another hard fought, action-packed bout.
Bout recap by: Superfan Thom Schneider
Derby City Roller Girls vs Burning River Roller Girls, March 24, 2012
On March 24, the Derby City Roller Girls hosted the Burning River Roller Girls of Cleveland, Ohio, for the second home game of the derby season. DCRG performed very well against Vette City the previous week, in an away game winning 192-108, and were looking to continue riding that victory back home. The fans quickly filled up Champs Rollerdrome after the doors opened, in anticipation of another hard fought, action-packed bout.
The match started with Burning River clearly setting the pace for the night. Their jammers, The Killustrator, Maul-ibu Barbie, and Punkd Pixie, quickly racked up 42 points in the first 3 jams. Slamus Aran and Jailbreak Jenny both served up some hard hits, knocking the jammers down or into the inner track, but the Burning River jammers were back up and into the game like seasoned veterans. Mel O" Drama put up Derby City's first 4 points during jam 3 before the 2 minutes were over, while meeting up with some tough defensive blocking.
Jam 5 was where DCRG got their first big influx of points. Derby City started the jam with a scrum start in hopes that our jammer, Lil Rage of Sunshine, would get lead jammer status, and that's exactly what she did. To top it off, The Killustrator was sent to the penalty box for what appeared to be cutting, sending Derby City on a power jam. Lil Rage made it through the pack 3 times, two of those passes being grand slams, before being knocked to the inside by BR's forward-most blocker and calling off the jam. Those 14 points really got the crowd going.
The rest of the first half was mostly dominated by Burning River. There was a good run by one of Derby City's newest team members, # 17 Ellie Slay, who scored 10 points on the 12th jam; however, too often the Derby City jammers were called on cutting, offensive fouls, or just straight-up shutdown by Burning River's defense. The halftime score was 48-135.
The second half started with both teams not really getting a major point advantage over the other in jams 18-21. Derby City put up some points through Lil Rage of Sunshine and Mel O" Drama, but Burning River would then answer with their own points from Punkd Pixie and The Killustrator. After that, fouls really ended up hurting DCRG this half, including one jam that for a short period left only Slamus Aran in play, as the other 4 players were in the penalty box. Burning City really capitalized on these jams, pulling their lead further and further ahead.
There were some very noteworthy plays during the second half from DCRG despite their time in the penalty box. One being Ellie Slay's 9 point run in the jamming department during the 27th jam. There were also two excellent whips given from Sharon Moonshine and Celia Graves to help our jammers try to break out of the pack. But it was really jam 26 that brought up the decibel level from the crowd. All the players lined up to start the jam and Celia Graves was on the jammer line for the first time that night, going up against Premo Donna. In the blocking positions were Jailbreak Jenny, Slamus Aran, and Lil Rage of Sunshine. The first whistle blew and before we knew it, Celia Graves gave a star pass to Lil Rage, making her the jammer. The crowd and announcers erupted in a frenzy of sound. The jam itself was short, and practically over right after it began. There was no scoring, but it was pretty cool to watch.
In the end, the Burning River Roller Girls won with a final score of 101-261. The MVP's of the game were Lil Rage of Sunshine (DCRG) and The Killustrator (BRRG) for jamming, while it was Jimi Hitrix (DCRG) and Eva Lucien (BRRG) for blocking.
