Author’s note: I apologize for the lateness of this recap.
Saturday Sept 24th’s double header, where Connecticut’s Yankee Brutals met up against Ottowa Canada’s Rideau Valley Roller Girls was a challenging one for the hometown team. To say that CTRG’s team was outmatched is an unfortunate understatement. Rideau’s team had an almost surreal ability to work as a team. As the Rideau jammer would speed around the track, the Vixen pack, acting with eerie uniformity, seemed to pull the pack all at once to one side or the other opening up a gaping hole for their jammer to skate through. Though frustrating for the players and the fans both, it was an impressive sight to see.
The Rideau strategies pulled in huge dividends. Right from the start, the Canadians aggressively accumulated points. They earned lead jammer status for the first seven jams, pulling in 13 grand slams and completely shutting out the Yankee Brutals. The Brutal’s Slugg’er Face was the first to score for Connecticut tallying a single point in the eighth jam stealing lead jammer status from Canadian skater D.D.T. While the point did little to change the tide for the Brutals, it did wonders to liven the atmosphere at the Connecticut Sports Center. The crowd exploded with that single point. It was a moment of life for the ladies in black!
The opportunity for scoring only came up once more time in the first half with Revengela scoring an impressive four points having taken advantage of an opportunity as Rideau’s D.D.T. was sent to the penalty box.
Aside from those five points, the glory was in the hands of the Rideau Valley Vixens. The first half ended with a deeply lopsided score an oppressive 153 for Ottawa to a mere 5 for Connecticut.
From the beginning it was clear that Ottawa was sticking with a strategy that was scoring points. The Rideau Valley Vixens were alternating almost exclusively between jammer Soul Rekker (#55) and jammer D.D.T. (#74). These two women were fierce jammers with impressive pack awareness. When the hometown team was able to break through the monstrous blocking of Rideau Valley, the visiting jammers were perceptive enough to end the jam before any points were scored by the Brutals.
The collective strength of the Rideau team was awe-inspiring. This was best exemplified in the seventh jam of the second half as Soul Rekker rolled up to the jammer line. She whipped around the outside of turn one as her pack screeched to a halt. She circled three times before the pack made it around once – such incredible skill on the part of both the jammer and her pack. And she kept going. and kept going. and kept going. Pulling in a jaw dropping 6 grand slams for 35 points… all in a single jam. 35 points! Amazing!!
There were a few bright spots for CT in the second half. Most notably eleven points scored by Paula G. Imnaughty and 5 by Dee Nasty and Slugg’er Face. But even with these great moments, there was little hope for the overpowered Yankee Brutals. As the time expired the score stood 301 for the visiting Vixens and 26 for the Yankee Brutals.
Whew!
Stats!
Top scorers!
Rideau Vixens
Soul Rekker: 186 points (17 leads in 19 jams)
D.D.T.: 106 points (14 lead in 16 jams)
Yankee Brutals
Paula G. Imnaughty: 11 points (0 leads in 9 jams)
Slugg’er Face: 6 points (2 leads in 9 jams)
This was a tough one for CT, but it was still exciting to watch the impressive skating of Ottawa’s team. Special props to Soul Rekker for her 35 point jam and to Slugg’er Face for securing both of the Brutal’s lead jammer statuses.
A big thanks to Matt for sending over statistics and also to all those that help make Roller Derby as awesome as it is. If you’d like more information on the game, check out CTRollerDerby.com The next bout is THIS SATURDAY! Whoa! come join us at the CT Sports center. Visit the above website for more details!
See you then!