(ST. PETERS & ST. LOUIS, MO) Both primary travel squads for the St. Chux Derby Chix and the Arch Rival Roller Girls faced visiting Nashville this weekend and the ensuing results turned out to be polar opposites. One was decided on the last jam while the other was determined mere minutes in.
SCDC’s Pack In Black, ranked #36 internationally by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), suffered a 168-154 setback to #31 Nashville Saturday at Matteson Square Garden in St. Peters. The Arch Rival All-Stars, ranked #23 internationally, thumped the Music City All-Stars, 345-36, Sunday at ARRG’s practice facility in South St. Louis.
Both results apply to the three squads’ respective calculated rankings. Arch Rival (1-0) and St. Chux (1-3) return to WFTDA sanctioned action at SCDC’s “Skate To Thrill” invitational, April 11 & 12 at Matteson Square Garden.
SATURDAY: #31 NASHVILLE 168, #36 ST. CHUX 154
A 14-point setback might have seemed, on the surface, difficult to swallow for the St. Charles County rollers and its fan base. But considering that the Pack In Black was down by 47 points at halftime against the competitive squad ranked five positions higher, the narrow defeat was arguably considered a victory for a team that wishes to maintain its status within the WFTDA Division 1’s calculated rankings.
Photo Credit: Jeff Higgins
“Although we did not win, we were able to keep it really close and we’re really happy with that,” said St. Chux captain Pixie Dust-Ruction afterwards. “We didn’t have to win for it to be really good for us, so we’re happy with the adjustments that we made in the second half and that we closed that gap and were able to keep it close.”
Trailing 3-2 after two rotations, St. Chux rolled out 24 unanswered points via back-to-back power jams. GI Jamie’s five-pointer flipped the scoreboard to 7-3 and Jedi Knight-N-Gale collected a 19-point strike at the 24:20 mark to extend SCDC’s lead to 26-3.
Nashville’s Phantom Power stopped the streak via an eight-pointer with 22:20 left to whittle the score to 26-11.
Knight-N-Gale capitalized with another power jam on the next rotation and pushed the Pack In Black’s edge to 38-11 with 20:15 left in the first period.
St. Chux maintained a 47-24 lead midway through the period, but Nashville went on a 53-0 rally that flipped the scoreboard and cultivated a halftime cushion.
Photo Credit: Jeff Higgins
It began with Big Banger’s 13-point power jam that narrowed the margin to 47-37 at the 13:30 mark. Chelsea Dagger added four on the next rotation to make the game single digits, 47-41 with 12:15 remaining in the frame.
Lady Fury’s nine-pointer scored at 11:15 resulted in a 50-47 Nashville lead change. Then after Banger added three points two rotations later, Dagger notched a 24-point power jam with 7:00 left to punctuate the 53-point rally and blossom Music City’s lead to 77-47.
Nashville widened the margin to 104-57 at intermission following Fury’s 13-point power jam on the period’s final rotation. St. Chux went into the locker room assessing and addressing the 47-point deficit, plotting a second-half comeback.
“We weren’t stopping them like we should have been,” said Dust-Ruction. “The end of the first half was not where we wanted it to be. We just tried to figure out what the problem was and to tell each other what we needed to fix in order to close it.”
This meant that the St. Chux blocking battalion, paced by Dust-Ruction, Whip L’Ash, Tara Eyes, Jane Error, Slaughterhaus, Lisa Frank-N-Stein, Big Red, Blue Collar Brawler, Peg E. Sass, Zombie Firebomb, Zo D. Ax and Nikki Trixx would have to kick their collective game into overdrive in order to keep pace and eventually charge.
Photo Credit: Jeff Higgins
Down 112-65 six minutes deep into the second period, St. Chux began whittling away at the deficit. Via a power jam, Knight-N-Gale scored 24 with 22:35 left to cut Music City’s lead to 112-89.
Then after Nashville’s Power posted four on the next rotation, SCDC’s Jamie notched a 12-6 power jam with 18:50 left that narrowed the game to 122-101.
Nashville held onto a 155-126 lead heading into the final six minutes of the contest, but St. Chux capitalized on jammer penalties and made the contest a close one. Knight-N-Gale scored 23 points on a power jam in jam 21 to cut the deficit to 155-149 with 4:25 left in the game.
A power jam on the next rotation from Jamie yielded five with 1:50 left to make the game a one-point affair, 155-154.
Dagger scored three on the game’s penultimate jam to make Nashville’s edge 158-154. Then on the final rotation, a St. Chux jammer penalty ensued, Phantom Power gained lead for Music City and posted ten points for the visitors that made the final outcome 168-154.
“We were really hoping in that last jam that we would get lead, score some points and maybe even pull out a win, but it just didn’t work out that way,” said Dust-Ruction of the heartbreaking end. “We did the best that we could.”
Fury paced Nashville scoring with 52 points, followed by Dagger’s 51. The Music City All- Stars evened its record to 1-1 with the win while St. Chux suffered its second loss in a row.
Knight-N-Gale’s 101 points topped the St. Chux ledger. The Pack In Back (1-3) is next in action at its hosted “Skate To Thrill” invitational in April, facing #27 Naptown, #38 No Coast, #43 Demolition City and #60 Tiger Bay.
Dust-Ruction feels that what St. Chux learned from the Nashville loss should benefit the team heading into the competitive slate of four games.
“We’re definitely going to look at what we did better in the second half and try to do that for the whole game, for all of the games” she said.
INDIVIDUAL SCORING
NASHVILLE MUSIC CITY ALL-STARS (168): Lady Fury 52, Chelsea Dagger 51, Big Banger 30, Phantom Power 29, Zip Drive 6.
ST. CHUX PACK IN BLACK (154): Jedi Knight-N-Gale 101, GI Jamie 31, Sleazy E 22.
In the b-team battle that followed, Nashville’s Music City Brawl Stars improved to 3-0 on the season with a 235-147 victory over SCDC’s Helle’s Belles, who dropped to 0-2.
For more information on the St. Chux Derby Chix, go to stchuxderbychix.com.
SUNDAY: #23 ARCH RIVAL 345, #31 NASHVILLE 36
The aforementioned Saturday bout gave St. Louis-based Arch Rival an opportunity to scout its Sunday afternoon opponent.
Photo Credit: Danisaurus Rex
Consider the field trip worthwhile as Arch Rival scored more points in the first six minutes than Nashville scored in the entire sixty. ARRG’s onslaught of the Music City All-Stars was characterized by multiple offensive rallies and a punishing defense.
“This is probably the strongest charter that we’ve ever had,” said Arch Rival co-captain Party Foul after the eye-opening output. “We have some amazing talent, both home-grown and transferred.“
That talent collectively churned out the 309-point winning differential, which should keep St. Louis steady in the WFTDA’s hierarchy. In fact, they might climb the flat-track totem pole.
“The score was really where we wanted it to be,” said Foul. “We needed (the win) to be over 300 to benefit in the rankings calculator.”
Photo Credit: Danisaurus Rex
After a 1-1 game-opening jam, Arch Rival scored 46 uncontested points over the next six minutes. Highlighted by Brickyard’s 24-point power jam at the 23:50 mark, St. Louis increased its lead to 47-1 with 21:40 left in the half.
Then following a solo-point rally breaker by Nashville’s Chelsea Dagger, Arch Rival’s Mighty Mighty Boston posted 20 points via a power jam, extending the locals’ lead to 67-2 at the 19:25 mark.
A pair a St. Louis “baker’s dozens” widened the margin as the period progressed. Bricktator scored 13 with 11:40 left in the period and Brickyard added 13 three rotations later, which pushed Arch Rival’s lead to 107-11 with 7:45 remaining in the half.
St. Louis finished the half with a 32-5 run, punctuated by Brickyard’s 24-point power jam that concluded the first period and resulted in a 139-16 advantage at intermission.
As impressive as that display was in the first half, Arch Rival saved its best for the second frame, beginning with a 56-0 run out of the gates.
Annie Swanson’s 13-point strike in jam three, was followed by Boston’s 20 on the next rotation and supplemented by Brickyard’s 13 in jam five. When the streak concluded, Arch Rival possessed a 199-16 lead with 21:05 remaining.
Photo Credit: Danisaurus Rex
St. Louis broke the bi-centennial mark after Swanson’s nine in jam nine made the score 208-33 at the 16:50 mark.
Then Arch Rival blocking went into lock-down mode for the remainder of the contest. With walls constructed by the aforementioned Foul, Emily Rinehart, Mayor Francis Slayer, Shimmy Hoffa, Kayla Seiber, Chewblocka, Cloak N’ Drag-her, Grave Danger, Jamheiser Bush, and Ninja Sass ‘Em, St. Louis surrendered only three Nashville points during the game’s last fifteen minutes and kept the Music City All-Stars scoreless for the last ten.
“Nashville has a extremely strong attack, so we wanted to make sure our walls were composed of people who are really solid and have really great stops,” said Party Foul. “People that can the take the heat and not fall out of a wall. I think we achieved that and I think that our lines were really great.”
As the shutdown ensued, Brickyard scored 35 via a power jam with 13:05 left, extending St. Louis’ lead to 257-33. Boston’s 10-pointer made the margin 308-36 with 5:20 remaining.
Propelled by the 80-0 game-ending run, St. Louis outscored Nashville, 206-20, in the second period to pick up the 345-36 season-opening victory. Brickyard finished with 145 points, followed by Boston’s 82.
“I felt like our jammers looked totally sick,” assessed Arch Rival’s Foul afterwards. “They were amazing and we were joking that our jammers totally taught a clinic to the other team because they were so good.”
St. Louis faces #27 Naptown, #35 Arizona, and #38 No Coast at April’s “Skate to Thrill” invitational.
Nashville (1-2) finished the Show-Me State trip with a split and was topped in scoring Sunday by Dagger’s 26.
INDIVIDUAL SCORING
ARCH RIVAL ALL-STARS (345): Brickyard 145, Mighty Mighty Boston 82, Annie Swanson 68, Bricktator 41.
NASVHILLE MUSIC CITY ALL STARS (36): Chelsea Dagger 26, Big Banger 7, Phantom Power 3.
For more information on the Arch Rival Roller Girls, go to archrivalrollergirls.com.
By trade, he is a six-time, regional Emmy Award-winning news videographer/editor for KTVI/KPLR-TV. By hobby, he is a writer for Arch City Media, dating back to February 2014. Emphasis is on featuring and promoting local women's sports, but will cover anything that is not reported by traditional media outlets. Also a contributor to local concert reviews.
