The Pistoffs were looking to grab a spot at the championship game, and the Dames were hoping to break their losing streak. The bout started with Mean Streak jamming for the Pistoffs, and Muffy Mafioso jamming for the Dames. The Pistoffs' blockers held in Muffy in place, allowing Mean Streak to lap her, thereby scoring a 5 point grand-slam.
For the 2nd jam, we saw a tactic that would be used a lot during the bout. The blocker start behind a line on the track about 20 feet or so in front of the line the jammers start behind. The blockers of both teams formed up walls directly in front of the jammers' starting line. Whenever this happens, there's a dense little flurry of motion that's almost impossible to decipher from the stands. Eventually jammers will break out, it's just a matter of who breaks out first. This time Freakin' Rican of the Pistoffs broke out almost immediately, allowing her to score 4 points, as Swift Justice of the Dames was locked down and shut out. This tactic was tried again in the 3rd jam with different results. It saw Formosa Fury of the Dames score 3 and use her lead jammer status to call off the rest of the jam before Combat Cat could score any for the Pistoffs. Jam 4 also had the blockers doing this maneuver with another completely different result. Doom Shakalaka and Freakin' Rican both gave their team 4 points, putting the score at 13-7. This tactic kept getting used through-out the rest of the bout, to an extent I've never seen before.
Over the next 6 jams the Pistoffs completely shut-out the Dames. The Pistoffs only added 7 points for the first 4 jams of this shut-out before making two big plays. Freakin' Rican jammed for 13 points in the 9th, followed by a multiple grand-slam performance from Mean Streak as she scored 25 points. Feta Sleaze broke the scoreless streak for the Dames with a 4-0 jam against Combat Cat. Cookie Rumble made a 9 point grand-slam in the 12th, followed by Freakin' Rican scoring 8 in the 13th to increase their team's lead to 67-11.
After some small scoring over the next 3 jams, Feta Sleaze made the first grand-slam of the night for the Dames, scoring 5. Mean Streak would then make another big play for the Pistoffs, scoring 19. Some more modest scoring over the last 3 jams of the bout, and the first half ended with a score of 104-28.
Cookie Rumble made the first big play of the 2nd half in the 3rd jam, with a double grand-slam and 14 points. Starting in jam 6, the Pistoffs put another 6 jam shut-out on the Dames, putting the score at 153-33. The scoreless streak ended when Formosa Fury scored 4 for the Dames, with Freakin' Rican scoring just as much for the Pistoffs.
Captain Kraken Whips of the Pistoffs didn't jam at all for her team in the first half. In the 15th jam of the game, her 3rd and last time jamming for this bout, she scored 19 unanswered points. The bout came to close 4 jams later with a final score of 195-49. Mean Streak was named the MVP of the game. With her stats that night, no one can can say that she didn't deserve it.
Kraken Whips, Captain of the Pistoffs had this to say:
Detroit Area Dork: What are you thinking about this bout?
Kraken Whips: I had a lot of fun. I was nervous about lining up on the jammer line. Usually it's kind of effective, and I'm glad that it wasn't today. It taught us a lesson on how to combat that. It was a good learning experience. I think we did really well as a team, and so did they. I think it was really good to get cohesion on the track.
Detroit Area Dork: What do you think your team excelled at today?
Kraken Whips: I would say our walls have gotten much better. More defensive play today, and their our offense was kick-ass. I'm very proud of them.
Detroit Area Dork: What do you think your team still needs to improve on?
Kraken Whips: Tighter wall, don't let them get spread out. That's what we're going to talk about next practice. Tighter walls and better endurance.
Detroit Area Dork: Back to blockers starting right in front of the jam line, it was weird to see it happen so much tonight.
Kraken Whips: That's a new tactic. The rules are changing, and it's going to be different soon, so I don't know if that's still going to be allowed. They're thinking of changing it to just one whistle, and then every has to go, and there's going to be a no engagement zone. It's kind of hard to tell what's going to happen. When that changes, it'll be faster derby.
Detroit Area Dork: This bout also saw a lot of blockers back-skating after knocking a jammer out of bounds.
Kraken Whips: The jammer has to reenter the pack behind that blocker's hip. Say if I knock you out, when you get back in, you have to get in behind me. If you don't that's a minor cut [penalty].
Detroit Area Dork: How far can that blocker skate backwards?
Kraken Whips: The whole track.
Detroit Area Dork: So she could skate backwards a whole lap?
Kraken Whips: Yeah, you can.
Detroit Area Dork: No limit?
Kraken Whips: You're out of play at a certain point. If a girl knocks me out when I'm jamming, and I've got no minors on the board, I'm just going to cut her because it's just one minor. If it's just one girl, and not the rest of the pack, it's worth to just take the minor.
Detroit Area Dork: Do you still have enough energy to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?
Kraken Whips: I'm so ready to get Pist! Again!
Devil's Night Dames Coach Dr. Rocktopus:
Detroit Area Dork: What are your initial thoughts on the bout?
Dr. Rocktopus: It's a rebuilding year for the Dames. We're pretty rookie heavy. We've got 11 skaters with one year or less. So every game is just trying something new, and see what they can do on their skates. It's a big thing to from never skating in your life on quads, and then jumping into this. I takes time, but I'm really proud of everybody. Everybody is taking really big steps, and trying really hard. It's just getting together as a team and bonding. It's nice to see that with a team that has this many new skaters.
Detroit Area Dork: How do you think the Pistoffs were able to pull ahead?
Dr. Rocktopus: They have unbelievably solid jamming. They've always had a really strong team as far as their walls are concerned. Their ability to switch from offense to defense on a snap really gives them a big advantage. They're the first team in Detroit derby to start doing the four person wall, and everyone followed them after that. They're a pretty vet heavy team. They have a lot of travel team [allstars], like Bruisie Sioux, Cookie Rumble, Elle McFearsome, so they're a pretty talented team.
Detroit Area Dork: What do you think your team needs to work on the most in practice?
Dr. Rocktopus: Pack awareness. It's something that's hard to work on. You can never mimic what actual game play is like. Awareness is built with time and play. I think that's what our team lacks the most right now. Our walls got broken, and people lost track of the jammer. It's just something that comes with time. We're pushing a lot of people around as far as lines go. It's getting everyone used to playing in a pack, something that no other sport can offer
Detroit Area Dork: Your next bout is against the Pistolwhippers. How are you going to prepare for them?
Dr. Rocktopus: Like I said, it's a rebuilding year for us, and we're not really preparing for their strengths or weakness. It's just building our game up as a team together. We're just going to be building on our team, and not going for what the Pistolwhippers are doing.
See the next bout, on Saturday, April 7th, when the D-Funk Allstars battle the Grand Prix Madonnas and try to take away their #1 spot in the standings. At the Masonic Temple. Tickest are $15, and the bout starts at 7.
All Pictures 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
