Rat City Rollergirls: Live chat this week; White Center return recap
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Rat City Rollergirls, founded in White Center in 2004, hit the one-decade mark next year. This week, RCRG reps will be live online for a chat with sports editors at SeattleTimes.com (WCN partner), noon Wednesday (March 6th). Meantime, from their recent return to WC, with bouts at Southgate Roller Rink, we have melded their post-bout writeup with photos taken that night by Nick Adams for WCN. Roller-derby play-by-play ahead!
(At left, Foxy Throwdown gets ready, pre-bout)
Photos by Nick Adams for White Center Now
Story by Peter Cozine – Special to White Center Now
The line waiting for entry into the bout was out the door and snaked around the block on 17th SW in White Center. The energy was high as fans flocked to Southgate Roller Rink February 23rd to watch the Rat City Rollergirls battle it out on the roller-derby track where the league got its start nine years ago.
Rat City’s four home teams were in action: Derby Liberation Front (DLF) took on the Throttle Rockets (TR) and Grave Danger (GD) played the Sockit Wenches (SW).
(Referee Don Juan Jovi)
More than 400 fans, skaters, referees, and volunteers packed the rink to watch the Rollergirls take it back to the shiny wooden track at Southgate.
The TRs showed some explosive offense early in the first half, winning lead jammer in 5 of the first 7 jams.
The TR blockers played cohesively and managed to keep a TR lead until the 9th jam when DLF captain Full Nelson scored 4 points and gave DLF a 2 point lead over the TRs.
Both teams sent jammers to the penalty box (above) in the first half, but the blockers for both teams played great defense, limiting the opposing team to only 9 total during their first-half power jams. At the end of the first half, the TRs rallied, and led 57-43 at halftime.
At the beginning of the second half, both teams flip-flopped power jams; DLF jammer Full Nelson had a 17-point power jam, giving her team a 1-point lead, followed immediately by a 20-point power jam from Luna Negra, bringing the score to 60-59 in favor of the TRs. The rest of the half was dominated by the defenses. Great blocking from teams kept the score relatively low throughout the second half.
Led by the dynamic skating of Kamikaze Kim (above), DLF got a lead and held on to it with 5 jams left to go. The final score was 139-122 in favor of DLF.
(DLF’s PunkOn Pie, trying to thwart the Throttle Rockets’ jammer)
With a win in this bout, DLF put themselves in a position to compete for the Rat City Championship, while the Throttle Rockets fell out of the running and will be competing in the consolation bout on May 11th.
Highest-Scoring Jammers:
(DLF’s Kamikaze Kim, breaking past the Throttle Rockets)
DERBY LIBERATION FRONT
Kamikaze Kim- 66
Full Nelson- 35
Kimball Machine-20
THROTTLE ROCKETS
Luna Negra- 47
Sintripetal Force- 40
Panda Beer-26
In the second bout of the evening, Grave Danger leapt to an early lead against the Sockit Wenches (warming up in the photo above).
Grave Danger jammer Carmen Getsome scored a 15-0 power jam in the first jam and contributed to GD winning lead jammer in 8 of the first 10 jams. GD continued to build off their early lead, racking up a 60-point lead by the end of the first half.
Yet, to the roar of the crowd, Sockit Wenches’ veteran blocker Anya Heels put on the jammer cap twice in the first half and managed to win lead jammer in both jams.
At halftime the Sockit Wenches made some great adjustments, as they came out of the locker room revitalized and began to chip away at the large GD lead.
A jammer rotation of Sami Automatic, Belle Tolls, Rawkhell SqWelch, and Penny Racer went to work against the hard-hitting GD blockers, while GD relied on their stars Carmen Getsome, D’evil’D Meggs (photo above), and Nehi Nightmare to do the majority of the jamming.
Carmen Getsome scored 101 of her team’s 218 total points and demonstrated why she is one of the league’s most dominant players. The SW held GD to 96 points in the second half, while scoring 82 of their own.
SW rookie Rawkhell SqWelch had a great bout, grabbing lead jammer in all of her first half jams and scoring 36 points to help her team battle back against an impressive GD team; however, GD won the bout with a final score of 218-144.
The fans enjoyed seeing the Sockit Wenches play such a tight second half and, as always, cheering for Grave Danger, Rat City’s reigning champions.
This win improves GD chances of playing in the championship bout in May.
Highest-Scoring Jammers:
Grave Danger
Carmen Getsome-101
Kutta Betch- 49
D’evil’D Meggs- 30
Sockit Wenches Sami Automatic- 43
Rawkhell SqWelch-36
Belle Tolls- 33
Next up, Rat City returns to KeyArena for another doubleheader on March 16. More info & tickets @ www.ratcityrollergirls.com
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