Detroit Pistoffs 116 vs. Devil’s Night Dames 71

Posted on May 12, 2009

by Rusty Wheeler
Detroit, MI
May 9, 2009

The Detroit Pistoffs concluded their 2009 season by overcoming a 13 point deficit to defeat the Devil’s Night Dames 116-71, thereby winning the Consolation Game for 3rd place in the Detroit Derby Girls league. The game was close throughout the 1st half with the Dames holding a 43-39 lead at the intermission. About a third of the way through the 2nd half, the Pistoffs went on a 57-4 scoring tear, helped by 7 grand slams, and ran away with the game. The Pistoffs won the 2nd half by a 77-28 count, and the Pistoffs defense shut out the Dames in 12 of the half’s 18 jams.

The Pistoffs were league champions in 2006 and 2008. The Dames were runner-up to the Pistolwhippers in 2007.

1st Half

The Dames jammed Muffy Mafioso vs. the Pistoffs Effin’ Money to start the game, but the jam was scoreless. The Dames struck first in jam 2 when Racer McChaseHer won it 2-0. Although the Dames Yo-Yo got lead in jam 3, the Pistoffs Cookie Rumble won the jam 4-3. Effin’ Money got the Pistoffs first lead in jam 4 and won the jam 4-0 to give the Pistoffs their first lead at 8-5. Muffy Mafioso came right back with a 4-0 win in jam 5 to put the Dames back on top, 9-8.

Racer McChaseHer got another 2-0 win in jam 6, then jam 7 was scoreless. The two captains, Racer & Cookie, skated to a 4-4 tie in jam 8. Muffy won jam 9 by 4-0 for the Dames, then Goodnight Gracie got a 2-0 win for the Pistoffs in jam 10 to cut the Dames lead to 19-14.

The Dames lost their jammer Rock Candy to the box in jam 11 for cutting the track, and that allowed Effin’ Money to win the jam 3-0. With Rock Candy still in the box to start jam 12, the Pistoffs’ Combat Cat recovered from a very nice block applied to her by the Dames Vicious Vixen and went on to score a grand slam and a 9-6 jam win to put the Pistoffs back in front by 26-25. Elle McFearsome then donned the star for the Pistoffs and pitched a 4-0 shutout in jam 13, upping the lead to 30-25. Summers Eve-L tied the game at 30 by winning jam 14 by 5-0 (with a slam), but was bounced around in the pack by Pistoffs blockers Mexi-Go, Bruisie Siouxxx, and Devil Kitty and had to earn the points the hard way. Jam 15 was scoreless.

Yo-Yo grabbed lead jammer for the Dames in jam 16, but was belted by Elle McFearsome. Elle continued the hit out of bounds and so was banished to the place where derby skaters have to sit for a minute when they’ve been naughty. But that block allowed Elle’s sister, Cookie Rumble, to skate by and win the jam 3-2, so the Pistoffs again led, 33-32. Summers Eve-L emerged first from the pack in jam 17 but was not awarded lead as she swam through the enemy blockers. Devil Kitty eventually did get lead and called the jam, but Summers won it 4-3, resulting in another tie score at 36-36. Muffy won jam 18 by 4-3 over the Pistoffs Vega Vendetta, and Racer McChaseHer ended the half with a 3-0 shutout for the Dames.

At the intermission, the Dames led 43-39. Amazingly, the Dames had 13 lead jammers to only 4 leads for the Pistoffs, although the Pistoffs defense prevented the Dames from fully taking advantage of those leads. Each team had only one grand slam. The Dames lost two jammers to the penalty box, the Pistoffs only had one jammer sent to the sin bin. The half was played fairly even blocking wise, although there were lots of easy “pass throughs” for the jammers going through the packs. Also, in four different jams in the 1st half, one team or the other employed the “Sarah Hipel” strategy of lining up a blocker behind the jammers to start jams so they could quickly get their 4th minor and thus skate directly to the penalty box without having to skate all the way around the track on their way to the box.

2nd Half

The Dames jammed relatively new skater Yo-Yo vs. the Pistoffs experienced Devil Kitty to start the 2nd half, resulting in a 4-4 tie. Yo-Yo got lead jammer, scored, but didn’t call the jam soon enough and so DK was also able to score. Summers Eve-L stretched the Dames lead to 51-43 with a 4-0 win in jam 2. The Pistoffs Cookie Rumble jammed vs. Muffy Mafioso in jam 3. Cookie blocked Muffy into the infield, and then stopped. Muffy was ahead of Cookie in track position, but couldn’t re-enter without getting a cutting the track penalty. Cookie did eventually start skating again, though, and went on to a 4-0 jam win. That jam reminded me of some old “classic” derby match races. Then the Dames Racer McChaseHer scored a 9-0 win with a slam in jam 4, although there was no lead jammer. The Dames led 50-47, their biggest, and as it turned out, last lead of the evening.

The Pistoffs totally turned the game around in jams 5-10, outscoring the Dames 57-4 and shutting out the Dames in 5 of those 6 jams. First, Vega Vendetta tied the score at 60-60 with a 13-0 rout in jam 5. Vega got two slams in that jam, and was helped by two huge knockdowns of the Dames’ jammer Yo-Yo by teammate Bruisie Siouxxx. Summers Eve-L got lead for the Dames in jam 6, but could only manage a 4-4 tie with Effin’ Money. The Pistoffs Combat Cat won jam 7 by 14-0 with two slams, followed by a 4-0 win by Cookie Rumble, then jam 9 went to Effin’ Money 8-0 with a slam, then Vega Vendetta won jam 10 by 14-0 with two more slams. Suddenly, the Pistoffs were leading by 40 points at 104-64, and there were less than 9 minutes remaining on the game clock.

The Dames tried hard to get back into the game, but only mustered 7 more points the rest of the way. Racer McChaseHer won jam 12 by 4-0, then called it quickly to save time. But that time-saving was countered by the Pistoffs finding ways to waste time, such as Cookie Rumble taking her sweet old time to cross the blocker start line when lined up as a blocker, which meant the jammers couldn’t start until that last blocker crossed the blocker start line. The Pistoffs, themselves, only scored 12 points in the game’s last 8 jams, but with a 40 point lead and tremendous blocking they didn’t have to worry much about scoring.

While there wasn’t much scoring in the final 8 jams, there was still lots of hitting. One hit that really stood out was a floor-wiping knockdown of Dames jammer Muffy Mafioso by the Pistoffs Goodnight Gracie in scoreless jam 15. There was an interesting play in jam 14 when Dames jammer Vicious Vixen lost her helmet cover. She made a great move to slide in front of a couple of Pistoffs blockers to retrieve the cover from its resting place on the track. After the game, Vicious admitted she hadn’t known she had lost the cover except for hearing the announcers on the PA saying “Vicious has lost her helmet cover and so can’t score until she retrieves it!”

Also, late in the game, the Dames lined up Whiskey Soured against Mexi-Go. Both skaters are usually blockers, and they skated to a scoreless draw. Mexi-Go did get lead, and called the jam. She called it too soon, however, as the Dames Racer McChaseHer then called time out with only 3 seconds left on the game clock. That timeout allowed one more jam to take place. While the score was out of reach, the Dames were able to jam usual blocker Dizzy Devine, perhaps to give her some experience jamming. But the Pistoffs Cookie Rumble got the lead in that last jam, and just called the jam off right away to end the game.

In the 2nd half, the Pistoffs totally took charge. They had 8 lead jammers to the Dames 7 leads, but the Pistoffs scored 8 grand slams in the period (9 in the game), while holding the Dames to just 2 slams in the entire game. The Pistoffs also outscored the Dames 77-28 in the half, and won the game by 116-71.

Afterthoughts

This was the 6th meeting between these two teams, and the Pistoffs continued their mastery of the Dames as the Pistoffs have now won five of those contests. While the Pistoffs ultimately prevailed in this game, it was a very close and exciting game for the first 40 minutes. Even the stretch of the game in the 2nd half where the Pistoffs went on their 57-4 surge was exciting, if not for Dames fans. The Pistoffs had four different jammers score 19 or more points, while the Dames had Racer McChaseHer with 27 points but nobody else with more than 17 points.

The Pistoffs used to have a dominating defense in previous years, and although their defense let them down a little earlier this season, their “D” played up to the standards of their championship seasons in this game. Roller derby leagues and teams are always “rebuilding” by having to replace players who leave for various reasons. It seems the Pistoffs have finally gotten their new players up to snuff, although it occurred too late in the DDG season and so they miss the championship game this year. However, the Pistoffs are still technically league champs until there is a winner in the D-Funk Allstars vs. Pistolwhippers game on May 30, and the Pistoffs played like champions vs. the Devil’s Night Dames.

The Pistoffs also now have a lifetime overall record of 9-4 (tied with the Pistolwhippers for best in the DDG), while the Dames have fallen to a 4-10 overall mark.

Statistics

The Detroit Pistoffs were led in scoring by Effin’ Money with 31 points in 12 jams with 4 leads and 2 grand slams. Close behind was Vega Vendetta with 30 points in 6 jams with 2 leads and 4 slams, Other jammers were: Combat Cat (23 points, 5 jams, 1 lead, 3 slams); Cookie Rumble (19 pts, 6 jams, 2 leads); Devil Kitty (7 pts, 2 jams, 1 lead); Elle McFearsome (4 pts, 2 jams, 1 lead); Goodnight Gracie (2 pts, 2 jams); Mexi-Go (0 pts, 1 jam, 1 lead); Justass (0 pts, 1 jam).

The Devil’s Night Dames were paced by Racer McChaseHer with 27 points in 10 jams with 7 leads and 1 grand slam. Other jammers were: Summers Eve-L (17 points, 6 jams, 3 leads, 1 slam); Muffy Mafioso (12 pts, 9 jams, 4 leads); Yo-Yo (9 pts, 5 jams, 4 leads); Rock Candy (6 pts, 2 jams, 1 lead); Master Braider (0 pts, 1 jam, 1 lead); Dizzy Devine (0 pts, 1 jam); Inky Gash (0 pts, 1 jam); Vicious Vixen (0 pts, 1 jam); Whiskey Soured (0 pts, 1 jam).

The Pistoffs’ Bruisie Siouxxx was awarded game MVP. Bruisie had a total of 19 defensive “actions” which are blocks & knockdowns, plus 5 offensive actions (blocks, whips, etc). Other standouts for the Pistoffs were Elle McFearsome with a total of 39 actions, Cookie Rumble with 32 actions, Mexi-Go (21), and Combat Cat (15).

The Dames were led defensively by Racer McChaseHer with a total of 24 actions, proving once again that Racer is a top two-way player who plays defense as well as offense. Rock Candy had a solid game with 21 actions. Other notable blockers were Vicious Vixen (20) and Summers Eve-L (13).

Future

The Detroit Derby Girls will conclude their 2009 season on May 30 with their Championship Game featuring the 2007 champion Pistolwhippers versus an up-and-coming D-Funk Allstars. The Pistolwhippers defeated D-Funk 102-84 in the opening game of the 2009 season, but D-Funk has matured since then and it’s anybody’s game. The Allstars will be without experienced blocker Roxanna Hardplace, though, as she was injured in a game against Grand Raggidy on May 2. The Pistolwhippers’ Sarah Hipel also has an injury, but it would be extremely surprising if she doesn’t play in spite of the injury.

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