Fox Cityz Foxz - Womens Flat Track Roller Derby

3/21/11- The third intra-league double-header of the Foxz’ 2011 season was a raucous humdinger indeed, with the hardest working ladies in show biz putting on quite a show for the crowd at Players Choice on March 19th. The results of this evening set up the final matchups for Semi-Finals April 9th, so, y’know, there’s that.

8Queen Wheelers 99, Pushy Posse 64

The Wheelers started the season strong by knocking off defending champs the Paper Dolls, but, after a surprising clobbering at the hands of the Rollergirl Regiment last month, were still in the process of establishing whether they’re legit contenders for the league championship in May. The Posse, who haven’t tasted the delicious cupcake of victory for two years now, had much more modest goals in mind: Get the first win of the year, and dodge the angry spectre of a potential third season without a win.

The bout started with tough defensive play on both sides, with the offenses limited to a handful of single-scoring-jams between them. After nine jams, the Wheelers had scratched out a hard-fought four-point lead in this pitchers’ battle, 13-9. Things erupted in the tenth, however, when Posse jammer Blazin’ Butterly was sent to the penalty box on a low block, allowing Dizzy Dame to ring up 19 unanswered points for the Wheelers, and suddenly, the Wheelers had broken the game open at 32-9.

The Wheelers wasted no time in attacking their reeling opponent: Boun C. Ballz and Wilma Fingerdo combined for a 5-0, 4-0, 4-0 sequence for the Wheelers, bumping their lead out to a suddenly imposing 45-9 after 13. Following a 2-2 wash between Killer Doomkitty and Blazin’ Butterfly in the 14th, Dizzy Dame was back at it with an 8-4 Wheeler jam over Olive T. Cause Pain, followed by another 4-0 jam for Boun C. Balls, this time at the expense of Tootzy Roll-Her. A full box for the Posse allowed Dizzy to close out the half with a 5-0 run, and, at the end of the period, the Posse found themselves down by the rather imposing margin of 64-15.

The Posse must’ve popped their Underdog Super Energy Pills in the locker room at halftime, as they were able to nab lead jammer status in all of the first four jams of the second period, while holding the Wheelers to a single point during that time. This resulted in an 11-1 run for the Posse, bringing the score to a much more manageable 65-26 after four.

The Wheelers righted the ship ((truck?)) in the fifth, with Boun C. Ballz zooming to an 8-0 jam over Skeater Beater, which bumped the Wheeler lead out to 73-27. After a number of low-scoring jams, Ballz dropped an 11-4 over the beleaguered Skeater, taking the Wheelers lead out to 84-37 midway thru the second period.

With Boun C. Ballz boxed for a low block in the 10th, Blazin’ Butterfly was able to flap to a double-grand slam for the Posse, cutting the Wheeler lead to 84-47. The Posse were able to hold the Wheelers off the board entirely for the next three jams, but were only able to shave eight points off the lead during that time, inching closer at 84-55 after thirteen jams. After a 4-4 fourteenth, Killer DoomKitty used a full Posse penalty box to reciprocate the double grand slam, essentially icing the game for the Wheelers.

Dizzy Dame of the 8Queen Wheelers led all scorers with 54, whilst Skeater Beater paced the Posse with 17. The workhorses of the game were Boun C. Ballz and Jeanine Dropaho, who each skated in 70% of the jams for the Wheelers.

Rollergirl Regiment 84, Paper Dolls 72

This epic battle of former champions featured two participants in radically dissimilar states of repair: The Paper Dolls, after dominating the league for the last two seasons, have found their 2011 roster thinned substantially by retirements, injuries, and draft re-entries; consequently, they were only able to field a paltry six healthy bodies for the evening’s contest, and were thusly forced to borrow three skaters from other teams in order to scrape together some semblance of a roster. The Regiment, meanwhile, were in the pink of health, whatever that means, and able to field a full fourteen-skater roster for what turned out to be one of the most exciting bouts ever held at Players Choice.

The Regiment got off to an inauspicious start, with a major track cut sending jammer Lotta Issues to the box in the first jam. The Redge defense was able to kill the penalty without incident, and the jam ended in a scoreless tie. It was more of the same for the Redge in the second jam, with major track cuts sending jammer Cherry Grenade and blocker Monkey Shines to the sin bin, allowing Lolly PopYa to explode for a huge 19-0 run for the Paper Dolls — whom, all assumptions to the contrary, were suddenly looking like the Paper Dolls of old.

Three skaters on each team would serve penalty minutes in the third, including Paper Dolls jammer Slick Nikki, which allowed Secretary of Skate to turn the game’s momentum around completely for the Regiment with a huge 22-0 powerjam, staking her team to a three point lead at 22-19. This would start a streak of six straight scoreless jams for the Dolls, as well as seven straight lead jammers for the Regiment. When a fourth minor sent Slick back to the box in the 8th, Secretary knocked out another big jam – this one a 10-0 fling that put the Redge up 41-19 after eight.

Cherry Grenade worked a 6-2 victory in the twelfth over hired gun Bad Azz Butterfly, who had played earlier in the evening with her regular team, the Pushy Posse, which bumped the Regiment lead out to 50-23, but the Redge were held scoreless for the rest of the half by the hard-working Dolls defense. When Secretary of Skate was boxed for a major track cut, Slick Nikki finished out the half with a 9-0 run which moved the Dolls to within sixteen, Regiment up 50-34 at the half. Unfortunately, this mild resurgence was coupled with yet another setback for the Dolls: Original Paper Doll Vixin de SlamHer injured her knee just before the half and will be lost for the remainder of the season, bringing the number of currently healthy Dolls down to a scarily low five. Yikes!

Apparently unconcerned that they were fielding eight skaters to the Regiment’s fourteen, Slick Nikki earned a 3-0 over Lotta Issues to start the second half, bringing the dolls within thirteen to start the half. With Regiment blockers Roxxy Rage and Mz. Shuggah in the box, the Paper Dolls pack was able to completely smother Redge jammer Cherry Grenade, allowing Lolly PopYa to go off for her second 19-0 jam of the game, and emphatically wresting the lead back for the Dolls, 56-50.

Secretary of Skate countered with a 4-0 third to bring the Redge back within two, but Lolly countered that with a 4-0 fourth, putting the Dolls lead back at an even half-dozen, 60-54. After a 0-0 fifth, a 4-3 Dolls sixth, and a 6-6 seventh, Cherry Grenade went 4-0 in the eighth to bring the Regiment back within three, at 70-67. This would start the bout’s second streak of six scoreless jams for the Dolls; meanwhile, the Redge would own the lead jammer category for the last eight jams.

Secretary of Skate put the Regiment up for good with a 4-0 ninth, establishing a slim 71-70 lead. The Redge would score a modest nine points over the next four jams, but continued to burn clock and keep the Dolls off the board. Cherry Grenade would grab the final lead jammer status of the game, and, watching the game clock tick out, called the jam to seal the victory for the Rollergirl Regiment, 84-72.

Lolly PopYa of the Paper Dolls led all scorers with 48 points in a losing effort; Secretary of Skate led the way for the Regiment, with 40. The workhorse of the night was Woman O War of the Paper Dolls, who played in an astounding 85% of her team’s jams. Jeanine Dropaho, on loan to the Dolls from the 8Queen Wheelers, played in over half of her adopted team’s jams – after having played in 70% of the jams of the Wheelers-Posse bout earlier in the evening. Yikes!

With a 3-0 record, the Rollergirl Regiment are the league’s top seed, and will face off against the winless Pushy Posse at the league semifinals at Players Choice in Appleton April 9th. The 2-1 Wheelers will face the 1-2 Paper Dolls, with the winners moving on to the championship bout in May.

3/8/11-The Fox Cityz Foxz Scream Puffz completed an unfortunate trifecta in the ((painfully)) early morning hours of Sunday, March 6th, falling to fellow WFTDA members ((and lower-case z pluralizerz)) the Sioux Falls Roller Dollz Doll Starz for the third time in the last ten months. Hosting what is colloquially referred to as a “hangover bout” – an unpublicized, low-key affair held when a traveling team happens to be in town long enough to participate in a quick, but fully-sanctioned, game – the Foxz added a 227-83 home loss to an October road loss and May 2010 neutral site shellacking at the hands of the rugged South Dakotans.

After a 0-0 first jam, the Foxz started the second jam with pivot Woman O War in the penalty box on an out-of-bounds block. WoW was quickly and unfortunately joined by Foxz jammer Boun C Ballz, and the visitors wasted no time in exploiting their numerical advantage, racing thru the depleted Fox Cityz pack for multiple grand slams. Just as WoW was returning to play, Wilma Fingerdo was boxed on a low block, maintaining a 4-3 pack advantage for Sioux Falls which they continued to ruthlessly exploit. Ballz was able to scratch out four points at the end of the jam, but the damage had been done: When the dust had settled, Julia Wild had staked the Roller Dollz to a 23-4 lead, and the wild rumpus was in full swing.

Any Foxz hope of getting back in the game evaporated in a haze of penalty minutes – the Foxz went seventeen straight jams before managing to keep all five skaters on the track from whistle to whistle, ringing up well upwards of twenty minutes of penalty time in the first half. By comparison, the Doll Starz benefited from a fairly clean game, earning only six total penalty minutes in the period. This disparity in sin bin occupancy allowed the Doll Starz' jammer rotation of Hollicidal Maniac, Julia Wild, and Jackie O'Smashus to put up some pretty gaudy numbers, ringing up multiple scoring passes on nine of the period's eighteen jams. Secretary of Skate used a powerjam situation in the last ham of the half to break thru for the Foxz sole multiple scoring pass jam of the period, but, at the break, the shell-shocked Foxz found themselves down by the rather distressing margin of 151-29.

The Foxz found some equilibrium in the second period as the penalty minutes began to even out, and were able to hold the Doll Starz to only three multiple scoring pass jams for the half. And, although the Foxz took lead jammer status for seven of the first nine jams of the period, they ultimately could manifest no answer for the Roller Dollz' simple-but-effective strategy of racing out and walling off the front of the pack. The home team repeatedly attempted to neutralize the Doll Starz' walls by trapping a stray Doll Star at the rear of the pack, but the visitors continually countered this counter-strategy by slowing their speed to match the Foxz' pace, never skating past the twenty foot limit that would put them out of play and force them to yield the right-of-way to the Foxz' jammer. The Foxz had no counter-counter-counter strategy in place, and their beleaguered jammer corps spent the morning futilely pounding against the Roller Dollz' walls like so many waves against the Kewaunee breakwater. Highlights for the Foxz included a 20-0 fourth-jam outburst by Lotta Issues ((which accounted for nearly a quarter of the team's total score)), followed by a nice 9-0 sixth by Lolly PopYa, but the Doll Starz took lead for the next six jams in a row, offsetting the Foxz' scoring with a huge 23-0 powerjam in the eleventh courtesy of Hollicidal Maniac. The final score of 227-83 was only a few points off the 229-79 result from October's meeting. Wacky!

Hollicidal Maniac of the Roller Dollz led all scorers with 84 points; Lotta Issues paced the Foxz with 24.