The Rocky Mountain Rollergirls finished off their 2014 season with a junior/senior double-header at the Fillmore Auditorium on Friday night.

punks-recap

Rocky Mountain Rollerpunks edge Foco Spartan Babes

In the opener, the Rocky Mountain Rollerpunks Might Club took on the juniors from Fort Collins and gave fans a stellar glimpse into the future of Colorado roller derby. The level of play was extremely high throughout, though a staggering 46 Out of Play penalties between the teams gave an indication of what both teams might be focusing on heading into 2015.

Rocky Mountain took an early 24-5 lead through eight jams, but a pair of 14-point jams helped FoCo knot things up at 36 four jams later. But that was as close as FoCo would get until a huge 18-0 power jam gave them their first lead at 69-52 late in the first half.

Once they got that lead, FoCo showed no signs of giving it up. It was not until the 15th jam of the second half that the Punks regained the lead at 119-113 thanks to a 9-3 jam by Cream Bomb. But Rocky’s lead was short-lived. The young ladies from Fort Collins shut the Punks out the next two jams to jump back ahead 126-119 and pushed that lead to 148-132 as things started to look grim for the home team. That’s when An’Ya Blindside took over.

She had only scored 16 points in the game before her 17-0 power jam gave Rocky a one-point lead. A 4-0 win by recent Team USA selection Bananaka Split stretched the lead to 153-148 as the clock ticked below the 2-minute mark. An’Ya took the star again for the final jam. FoCo’s Daisy Jukes got lead, but was sent to the penalty box. With the jam now destined to go the full two minutes, An’Ya racked up 27 points to Jukes’ four as the Punks rolled away with an impressive 180-152 victory.

Thanks to those 44 points, An’Ya Blindside ended the game as Rocky’s leading scorer (60 points), followed closely by Bananaka Split (54).

contenders-recap

Rocky Mountain’s Contenders Battle Tough Denver Team

The second game of the night was a battle of the Denver-area B-Teams. But as any derby fan in the Denver area knows – a “B-Team” game between Rocky Mountain and Denver is nothing to take lightly. Despite the fact the Rocky and DRD primarily draw their players from the same city, they still feature two of the strongest B-Teams in the world (in fact, Flat Track Stats ranks them as #1 and #2).

Fresh off a strong jamming performance at the WFTDA Championship tournament in Nashville, Midge Mayhem (Wilhelm) took the star for Denver but was outscored 4-0 by Syke’O in the opening frame. The two teams quickly cranked up the scoring as DRD’s Ova Achieva and Rocky’s ShredHer Wheats skated to a 15-15 draw in the game’s second jam. The Contenders extended their lead to 19 points before a 19-0 win by Midge tied things up at 36. Unfortunately for Rocky Mountain, that was last they would see of the lead for the rest of the night. But that’s not to say that they didn’t keep things interesting.

Denver’s lead expanded and contracted throughout the remainder of the first half and the Contenders were able to trim a 43-point deficit to 14 points at the half. Unfortunately, the first half was the final half for standout Rocky Mountain jammer Syke’O. After gaining lead jammer status in her first three jams, Syke’O took a hit to the head. She played just one more jam before leaving the track for the night with concussion-like symptoms.

With Syke’O sidelined and Ivanna Hassselhaus also banged up, the Contenders added Fiona Grapple and Major Lil Payne to their jammer rotation for the second half – a move that paid off to the tune of 52 of the team’s 93 second-half points. On the other side of the track, Denver relied heavily on their trio of WFTDA Championship tournament skaters as Wilhelm, Williams (Willy Nilly), and Lorch (RazorCat) accounted for all but 12 of Denver’s 97 second-half points.

The second half opened with promise for Rocky as ShredHer Wheats took a 13-8 win over Wilhelm to reduce the Denver lead to single digits after the first jam. The game remained close throughout as Denver’s lead never got above 20 points the rest of the night. As time began to wind down, a 3-0 win for Havoc pulled the Contenders to within seven points at 180-173. With the game on the line, Wilhelm showed why this would be the last B-Team game of her career. The small but powerful jammer took lead and kept the jam going as three Rocky blockers were sent to the box. The 20-9 jam gave Denver a comfortable 200-182 lead. With just a few seconds remaining, Denver gave Williams the star for the final jam and he quickly called off the jam once time had expired on the period clock.

MVP awards for the game went to Wilhelm (jammer, 68 points) and Norah P Neffrin (blocker) for Denver. ShredHer Wheats (jammer, 59 points) and Rowdy Rothbomb (blocker, 0 penalties) took home the awards for Rocky Mountain. Sadly, this was Rowdy’s last game with Rocky Mountain as she will be moving out of state before next season.