The D-Funk Allstars were looking to keep their winning streak going, while the Pistolwhippers needed to stop a losing one. To start the bout, Tinja, jamming for D-Funk, faced off against Tara To Pieces of the Pistol Whippers. Tara had lead jammer status, and scored 4 before calling off the jam, to Tinja's 3. Meryl Slaughterburgh of D-Funk had lead jammer status in the 2nd jam, and called it off before either jammer could score. Meli Ali added 3 for the Pistolwhippers in the 3rd to make it 7-3 in their favor. Tinja then give her team 3 before cutting the 4th jam short, followed by Tara scoring 2 in the 5th, and Bytch Ryder scoring 1 for D-Funk in the 6th.
The first big play to happen that night went down in the 7th jam, when Meli Ali scored 9 points for the Pistolwhippers, against Ally Sin Shoverland's 1. Meryl would score 4 in the 8th, before a pair of 4-4 jams for the 9th and 10th. A 4-2 jam in favor of D-Funk in the 11th still had the Pistolwhippers leading 28-26.
The D-Funk Allstars got shut out by the Pistolwhippers defense over the next 8 jams. D-Funk's offense hasn't been effectively shut down like this all season. By the time the 19th jam ended, the Pistolwhippers were up 45-26. D-Funk did better over the the four last jams of the first half, but the Pistolwhippers were still leading 47-35.
The first 5 jams of the 2nd half had the score slowing creeping up, but still had the Pistolwhippers leading 52-43. At this point D-Funk's penalties started catching up with them, and they started the 6th jam with only one blocker on the track. Polly Fester was the only green uniform on that blocker line, and Lazer Beam took advantage of it to score 10 points for the Pistolwhippers. D-Funk was able to make some net gains over the next 6 jams, narrowing the Pistolwhippers' lead to 71-62.
D-Funk again saw their offense shut down. This time for 5 consecutive jams. That streak started with a big 12 point jam from Lazer Beam, and ended with a 9 point jam from Boo D. Livers, who managed to pull herself away from knocking jammers down in order to do some jamming herself on the Pistolwhippers' behalf. The last scoring jam of the bout had Meryl Slaughterburgh score 10 unanswered points for D-Funk. Final score was 100-72, and Diesel Doll was named the MVP of the game.
This bout was the lowest scoring bout of the season so far. No one expected that to happen with this pairing. Both teams are known to make many double digit scoring jams in their bouts, and both teams just seemed to play a different game than they're known to play. The Pistolwhippers didn't have their usual penalty problems, with their jammers bouncing in and out of the penalty box all night long. While their defense didn't hold to rigid wall formations, it was still very effective. D-Funk on the other hand, had the penalty problems that night, and their defense lacked the discipline they normally have.
Captain Lazer Beam, and Assistant Captain Diesel Doll of the Pistolwhippers shared some thoughts:
Detroit Area Dork: How are feeling about the bout:
Lazer Beam: I feel fantastic. Hard work pays off. We felt we were getting better and better, and tonight proved that. If you work hard, keep pushing it, stay positive, and you can win.
Diesel Doll: The team's been working really hard for this bout. We know that they were a really tough team to beat.They've got more veteran players than we do. We know we needed to bring it to this game.
Detroit Area Dork: What do you think helped you pull ahead?
Lazer Beam: I think we kept it cool on our bench. We had a plan, we stuck with the plan. We didn't make lines off the fly, and put bandaids on situations, like the penalties thing before. I think our key was the jammers didn't go to the box much this bout, we just kept our cool on the bench.
Diesel Doll: I would agree with that. We know we could win if we played smart. Not to lean on our injuries too much, but we have a couple who have the flu right now. We knew we had to play smarter, and not more physical.
Detroit Area Dork: Was there a big focus on penalties during practice?
Lazer Beam: We're always focused on penalties, but we've been working on keeping it cleaner. One of our problems is we often unintentionally throw an elbow.
Diesel Doll: It's a window of opportunity for our team. I went to penalty box more tonight than I have the last four seasons. A lot of it has to do with conditioning.
Detroit Area Dork: Why was the pace of scoring in this bout slower?
Diesel Doll: We played a lot of defense. Our strategy, we're a very defensive team, so we try to slow the other team's jammer down a lot. We didn't see the mega 20 or 30 point jams.
Lazer Beam: It was almost like nickle and diming. Get your points, and as soon as the other jammer reaches the pack, call it off. Then start over, let the blockers do their job once the jammer gets out. It's jam by jam I guess.
Diesel Doll: It was smart strategy play.
Lazer Beam: If you get a 3-2 jam, that's good. We're winning.
Captain Fatal Femme, and Assistant Captain Mad Hatcher of the D-Funk Allstars also had something to say:
Detroit Area Dork: What are you thinking about this bout?
Fatal Femme: I'm thinking we just played the worst game of derby that D-Funk has ever played.
Detroit Area Dork: That's pretty harsh.
Fatal Femme: We're a better team than that. We all know that we are. You can catch anyone on a bad day, and this is our bad day.
Mad Hatcher: We're going to have some days off. We're going to watch the footage, and figure out what we need to do to change it.
Detroit Area Dork: Why do you think your team came up short?
Fatal Femme: I think we didn't do any of the things we've been practicing for the last 6 months. I feel like everyone was playing an individual game instead of playing together. We're known for playing together, and being tight, and it was just an off game.
Mad Hatcher: I think in the second half you can see some of that starting to come together again. We're going to regroup and come back even stronger. I feel good about D-Funk. We just need a couple days to shake this off.
Detroit Area Dork: Do you think the Pistolwhippers played a different game than they normally do?
Mad Hatcher: The Pistolwhippers are just getting better. They're stronger than they were, and learning how to play together. They have some really strong jammers.
Fatal Femme: They played a hard game, and they wanted it. That's what's keeping them in the championship running. They wanted it, and it showed. From jam one, they wanted, and they took it.
Detroit Area Dork: Do you think penalties really killed it this time?
Fatal Femme: I think the penalties were pretty fair both ways
Mad Hatcher: I think when we started to get a little more...
Fatal Femme: A little more desperate...I don't know. It screws up everything.
Detroit Area Dork: What do you think you're going to be working on in practice?
Fatal Femme: Everything. Back to basics.
Mad Hatcher: A lot of communication, a lot wall of holding.
Detroit Area Dork: How are you going to prepare for your next bout against the Grand Prix Madonnas?
Fatal Femme: I just think we need to play our game, and not the opponents' game. That's what we did today, we played their game. We need to play how we practice, and not how they want us to play.
All photos by Scott Lipiec
This post written by:
I'm a dork, I live in the Detroit area, and sometimes I take blurry photos on an outdated camera
