Bout recap: Mid-Michigan 99 vs. Glass City 82

Bout Recap: Mi-Michigan Derby Girls 99 vs. Glass City Rollers 82

-- February 21, 2009
-- Mt. Morris, Michigan
-- by Rusty Wheeler

Two more women’s flat-track derby leagues debuted on February 21, with the host Mid-Michigan Derby Girls outlasting the Glass City Rollers, 99-82. Mid-Michigan is in Mt. Morris, just north of Flint, and Glass City is from Toledo, for those who didn’t know but now you do. This game was a non-WFTDA bout, although skated under WFTDA rules.

Mid-Michigan rolled out to a 9-0 lead after two jams, leading 42-31 at the 1st intermission. Mid-Michigan also took lead jammer in the first 8 jams of the period, and in 9 of the period’s 11 jams. Glass City opened the 2nd period by shutting out their hosts in five straight jams to tie the game at 42-42. But Glass City could only put up another 5 points the rest of the way in the 2nd, while getting shut out themselves in 5 of the last 7 jams. Mid-Michigan also enjoyed three grand slams in the last five jams to lead 71-47 after two periods.

Mid-Michigan stayed in command in the 3rd period, leading all the way by at least 20 points and as many as 35 points before a late Glass City rally cut the final margin of MM’s victory to 17 points at 99-82.

The teams were fairly well matched. Glass City had two jammers with 24 points each, plus another with 18 points. Mid-Michigan had four jammers scoring 21, 17, 15, and 14 points. Although blocking stats were not recorded at the game, I believe the difference in the game was due to slightly more effective blocking walls by Mid-Michigan. Several times MM would have two blockers totally bottling up the GC jammer, and GC’s blockers were unable to mount any kind of attack against those walls. GC’s blockers did play well at times, particularly late in the 3rd period when they helped Satan’s Little Helper score a triple grand slam 15-0 jam win, and also Holly Toledo who had a double grand slam 10-0 jam win for Glass City.

Penalties were also fairly even. GC had 51 minors and 16 majors with players spending 23 minutes sitting in the penalty box. MM had 47 minors and 17 majors, sitting for 25 minutes. Most of GC’s minors were for back blocking and hitting out of bounds. MM was mostly penalized for elbows and forearms. GC lost 5 jammers (out of 30 jams in the game) to cutting the track majors, and MM lost 6 jammers to the same penalties.

1st Period

GC lined up Tonya Pavement at pivot, blockers Wendy Boughbreaks, Punk Monkey, Ima Zombie, and jammer Holly Toledo (a great name for a skater from Toledo, BTW) against pivot Gang Star, blockers Jes Sicka, Unita Whoopin’, Kay OTIC, and jammer Smash YoFacin for MM in each team’s first ever jam. When it was over, Smash had scored her team’s first-ever points in a 4-0 jam win. That was followed by MM’s Valetta Vendetta’s grand slam 5-0 jam win in jam 2. Jams 3 to 5 went to MM by a combined 12-11 margin, then in jam 6 Smash put up a 5-0 jam win with a slam. MM led it 26-11.

Jams 7 and 8 were won by Glass City, each by a 4-3 margin, then jam 9 was a 3-3 tie. Then Betty Krack-Her poured on another 5-0 slam win for MM. But in the period’s last jam, GC’s captain Pamazon pulled off a 9-2 jam win with a slam to make the margin at the intermission respectable, 42-31 in favor of Mid-Michigan. GC was able to get lead jammer in two of the final three jams in that period.

2nd Period

Glass City made a game out of it early in the 2nd frame. Holly Toledo got lead to open the period and won 4-0. The 2nd jam saw MM’s Puddin’ DaHurton get lead but then get sent to the penalty box with a 4th minor penalty, so GC’s Sally Seam Rip-Her was an opportunist and won the jam 2-0. That cut MM’s lead to 42-37. Then GC’s Satan’s Little Helper, helped by Puddin’ starting the jam in the box, got lead and scored a 5-0 slam win to tie the score at 42-42.

Mid-Michigan lost their jammers to the penalty box in both jams 4 and 5, but neither team could score due to the tenacious blocking of MM. Then in jam 6 Pamazon got lead for GC and it looked like they might be able to take the lead, but instead Pamazon got sent to the box with a major penalty for cutting the track, and that allowed MM’s Puddin’ DaHurton to score a 9-1 jam win with a grand slam. That gave MM a 51-43 lead, and they held that lead until the end of the game.

Glass City was only able to put up 4 points in the last four jams of the period, getting shut out in three of those jams, while MM tallied 20 points to start to run away with the game, 71-47, at the 2nd intermission. MM’s Misty Motor-Boatin’ had a 5-4 jam win with a slam, and Betty Krack-Her had a 9-0 jam win with a slam in those final four jams. In the 2nd period, GC made their run to tie the game in a stretch where MM lost their jammers to the box in 3 of the period’s first five jams. Then MM pulled away at the end as GC lost their jammers to the sin bin in 4 of the last five jams. It truly hurts a team when their jammer is sitting and stewing rather than skating around the track!

3rd Period

In spite of MM’s jammer Puddin’ DaHurton going to the penalty box (after getting the lead) to open the 3rd period, GC’s No-Holds Barbie couldn’t make any headway against the MM blockers and so the jam ended scoreless. Then GC’s Pamazon got lead in the 2nd jam, but she was sent to the box, and so Puddin’ came out of the box and earned a 5-2 jam win for Mid-Michigan. Valetta Vendetta scored 6 points with a slam in jam 3, but Pamazon came out of the box and scored 8 to win the jam 8-6 for GC.

Jams 4 and 5 went to MM by identical 5-0 scores by Misty Motor-Boatin’ and Emilee VaBruise (Emilee scoring a slam), and that gave MM their largest lead of the night at 92-57. But Glass City wasn’t finished yet. In jam 6, GC’s blockers Pamazon, Vod-Kill-Ah, Frieda Fisteekuffs, and No-Holds Barbie got it figured out and they totally bottled up MM’s jammer Puddin’ DaHurton while GC’s Satan’s Little Helper rocketed around the track en route to a 15-0 triple grand slam jam win in the most spectacular jam of the night. Suddenly the MM lead was down to 20 points at 92-72 with time enough for about 3 more jams.

But it was not to be for the skaters from south of the border (the Michigan-Ohio border, that is), as MM took control again in jams 7 and 8, winning those jams by a 7-0 count (and helped by GC’s jammer Pamazon going to the box again) to up the lead to 99-72. GC then finished off the game with another nice jam, this time a 10-0 double grand slam by Holly Toledo which simultaneously gave Glass City 82 points on the game and also kept Mid-Michigan from reaching the century mark. Final score was Mid-Michigan 99, Glass City 82.

Statistics and Afterthoughts

Leading scorers in the game were Glass City’s tandem of Pamazon and Satan’s Little Helper, each scoring 24 points. Pamazon jammed 7 times with 4 leads and a single grand slam, while Satan’s jammed only 3 times with 2 leads and 4 slams. Satan’s put up a phenomenal 8.00 points per jam, outstanding in any league. Satan’s also led her team with a +14 in the plus/minus department; she was a +20 as a jammer. Other GC jammers were: Holly Toledo (18 points, 7 jams, 4 leads, 2 slams); Punk Monkey (7 pts, 5 jams); Crabby Patty (4 pts, 4 jams); No-Holds Barbie (3 pts, 2 jams, 1 lead); Sally Seam Rip-Her (2 pts, 2 jams).

Mid-Michigan was paced by Puddin’ DaHurton with 21 points while jamming 8 times with 3 leads and 2 grand slams. Other jammers for MM were: Smash YoFacin (17 points, 4 jams, 4 leads, 2 slams); Misty Motor-Boatin’ (15 pts, 6 jams, 3 leads, 1 slam); Betty Krack-Her (14 pts, 2 jams, 2 leads, 2 slams, 7.00 pts/jam avg.); Emilee VaBruise (4 pts, 1 jam, 1 lead); Kay OTIC (4 pts, 1 jam, 1 lead).

Although defensive stats were not kept, I did notice Kay OTIC and Maniac Momma dishing out some nice blocks for Mid-Michigan, although the MM blocking plus/minus was led by Betty Krack-Her (+27 as a blocker, +41 overall to lead MM in both categories), followed by Emilee VaBruise with +22 (blocking), +31 (overall), Tara NuAss (+22 blocking), Jes Sicka (+14 blocking), and Smash YoFacin (+14 blocking, +31 overall).

Glass City’s plus/minus was led by Satan’s Little Helper (+14 overall, +20 as a jammer), followed by Frieda Fisteekuffs (+11 blocking), Punk Monkey (+20 blocking, +7 overall), and Pamazon, (+13 as a pivot, although only +2 overall).

MVPs of the game were Emilee VaBruise for Mid-Michigan and Satan’s Little Helper for Glass City.

This game was sort of typical of new leagues in that they featured mostly real slow packs, the blockers weren’t as organized as a unit as they will be with more experience, but on the other hand, the score was respectably low (for me). I had expected a 200-170 sort of shootout with jammers lapping the pack at will without ever calling off jams, but to my delight there was a fair modicum of good blocking and some smart jammer play with knowing when to call off jams. Both teams will have to work on those dad-blasted jammers cutting the track to stay out of the penalty box more, though!

All-in-all, both teams are worth watching again, so if you’re in the Flint, Michigan, or Toledo, Ohio, areas, go and check out these leagues sometime!

----- end of story -----