5/26/10-Unfortunately for all parties concerned, the Foxz’ most important game in the ten-month history of the Scream Puffz travel team also happened to be their worst performance to date, as the pink ladies were absolutely bludgeoned by the Sioux Falls Roller Dollz, 250-26, on the first day of Milwaukee’s BrewHaHa tournament. Sioux Falls – a full-fledged WFTDA league since fall of 2008 and currently ranked #15 in the North Central region – dominated the WFTDA apprentice Foxz from the get-go, ringing up an amazing number of consecutive grand slams to start the period, whilst holding the Foxz scoreless – to the point where it was actually a small moral victory when the Foxz finally denied the opposition a grand slam, holding Sioux Falls to a mere 4-0 jam. Skeater Beater’s three points finally got the Foxz off the schneid at 63-3 midway thru the first period, but, by the end of the half, Sioux Falls had thundered their way to an eye-popping 144-14 lead.
In the second period, the extremely short-handed Roller Dollz squad began to sub in their position players at jammer, but Sioux Falls could have probably jammed Mother Theresa at that point and still come away with a 10-0 jam. The Scream Puffz – looking every inch like an apprentice league travel team who’d only been practicing together for two weeks — were not only clearly overmatched by a superior opponent, but also exhibited a stunning lack of discipline in their pack play. The Foxz protracted mental lapses allowed Sioux Falls to build unchallenged walls at the front of the pack, while the Foxz front pack skaters routinely sailed out past the boundaries of the twenty-foot engagement zone, taking themselves out of play. The back of the pack fared little better, with the Foxz failing to capitalize on opportunities to trap fallen Sioux Falls skaters during power jam situations. When the final whistles mercifully blew, the Foxz found themselves on the short end of a dispiriting 250-26 shellacking at the hands of South Dakota’s finest. All was not high fives and giggles for the Sioux Falls squad, however, who started the day with nine rostered skaters and lost several to injury over the course of the game. The Roller Dollz’ low number of remaining non-injured skaters prompted them to pull out of their scheduled Sunday bout with Jet City ((currently ranked #12 in the Western region)), meaning that this bout is one that all parties involved – fans AND skaters – would probably like to forget.
