Brutal.

On Saturday, May 8th, the Yankee Brutals truly lived up to their name.

I am by no means a derby expert, but the hits in Saturday’s roller derby showdown seemed especially unforgiving. The Yankee Brutals, Connecticut’s B-team, welcomed the Brick City Bruisers from New Jersey for the first time at the Connecticut Sports Center in Woodbridge. While the glory of a derby bout often goes to the jammers, it was the pack that kept CT strong for this clash.

The bout started with introductions. First, let’s look at the line-up for the Garden State. The girls were dressed in Green and Black and during their warm-up laps looked rather imposing.

Brick City Bruisers

      Pimpstress Jasmine 11-11 (Co-Captain)
      Toni Soprano 4 (Co-Captain)
      Cap’n Jax Peril 619
      Diamond Knuckles 2.84ct
      Don’t Care Bear H8U
      Il Bandito 5-5
      Lovely Bones 20
      Lulu to the Barricades Mai68
      Predator-in-Chief 22
      Renegade Ruby 718
      Sucia Lokita 76%
      Sugar & Spice 29
      Tree Mugger 672
      Yak Attack 16

Welcoming the visitors was the home team, the Yankee Brutals. The local girls came out in red white and blue waving above them an American flag.

Yankee Brutals

      Babe Vigoda 56 (Co-captain)
      Paula G. Imnaughty NC-17 (Co-captain)
      Bimbo Slice 24KT
      Bonnie Voyage 505
      Cali Ripskin DV8
      Crash Corpse 6ft
      Dee Nasty 921
      Guns N’ Bruises 2012
      I. Harely Knew’Em 81
      Jean Mutation X2
      Murphy’s Outlaw 15
      Ramona Rotten 77
      Rinko Starr 64
      Taryn Limbs 4
      Fred Perrywinkle (coach)
      Doomcake (manager)

A warm welcome to Bonnie Voyage and Bimbo Slice who were skating for the first time on Saturday. This was also the first match with CTRG for Taryn Limbs who came over from Suburbia. Finally, welcome back to Ramona Rotten who returned on Saturday after a short leave of absence.

The first few jams of the night were aggressive and quick. First up, CT’s Ramona Rotten faced NJ’s Lovely Bones. The whistle blared and the girls started skating furiously. Right from the beginning the Connecticut pack showed great strength. The furious four in front held Lovely Bones back long enough for Ramona to fire through, securing lead jammer status and scoring four points to New Jersey’s one. Murphy’s Outlaw followed suit with four points of her own.

Cali Ripskin approached the jammer line next against Yak Attack. Despite, Cali’s unfortunate early trip to the penalty box, CT didn’t suffer a substantial setback. The CT pack held back Yak, refusing to let Jersey take advantage of its powerjam. Yak was forced to end the jam without any points for her team.

Lovely Bones replaced Yak at the jamming line for the next jam but once again the CT pack held strong. Bones made it through, but not before Cali had a chance to return to the bout. Paula and Jean Mutation gave Cali the seconds she needed to match Jersey point for point by aggressively knocking Bones once (shown above) and then again knocking her down and out.

Well done ladies of the pack!

Next, Murphy out sprinted Il Bandito as jammer for 10 points and then just two jams later came back as a blocker to take out Brick City Bruiser Il Bandito. Such versatility!

The two teams were fairly close in points until Ramona and Dee Nasty snagged 8 and 10 points respectively late in the first period to solidify an impressive lead. As the first half rolled to a close, the score showed 53 to 32 in favor of the girls in blue.

The second half saw Connecticut’s lead widen. Murphy’s Outlaw started the period with 9 points. Shortly thereafter Bonnie Voyage pulled in 5 of her own. The team was skating well together. Kudos must be given to Jersey Jammer Lovely Bones who showed great skating ability as she evaded a series of tough hits in the 8th jam of the second half. The maneuverability of these women on their skates can be truly remarkable.

New Jersey was unable to recover from Connecticut’s strong showing. As the last few seconds ticked away the scoreboard showed Connecticut ahead 106 to 72. Way to go Brutals!

Statistics!

Lead Scorers!

Yankee Brutals
Murphy’s Outlaw 39 points. 7 leads in 8 jams
Paula G. Imnaughty 26 points 2 leads in 6 jams
Dee Nasty 15 points 3 leads in 8 jams

Brick City Bruisers
Il Bandito 36 points 6 leads in 13 jams
Lovely Bones 18 points 4 leads in 11 jams
Yak/Diamond 9 points each 1/5 and 2/5 leads/jams respectively

Penalty Queens!

Yankee Brutals!
1st half
Paula and Harley 3 trips

2nd half
Jean Mutation, Paula, and Harley 2 trips

Brick City Bruisers
1st half
Bandito and Predator 2 trips

2nd half
Sugar, Sucia, and Pimpstress 3 trips

MVP’s

Yankee Brutals: Murphy’s Outlaw
Brick City Bruisers: Il Bandito

Congratulations to Murphy, Il Bandito, and all the players. Saturday’s bout was a pleasure to watch. Also, great job to the scorekeepers, organizers, and helpers – we fans know yours isn’t an easy task. We look forward to the next home bout on June 5th against Central Mass. If you’d like more information on all the Connecticut Roller Girl events, check out their webpage here.