Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
(TUCSON, AZ) In comments made a few days ago at this website, Arch Rival Roller Girls’ co-captain Bricktator stated that if her team grabbed a top-three finish at the Tucson playoff round of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) post-season tournament, they would sleep with their respective medals around their necks Sunday night.
Consider it achievement unlocked. Bedtime for the nine-year old league tonight will contain sweet dreams.
In Sunday’s bronze medal game, St. Louis utilized a 61-0 second period rally to notch a 224-185 victory over the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls and with its third place finish Arch Rival (15-2) earned a berth to the WFTDA International Championships in St. Paul, Minnesota in November.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
ARRG, the ten-team playoff’s third seed, erased a 30-point halftime deficit and outscored the 5280 Fight Club in the second period, 131-62, to notch the 39-point win that sends the rollers to its first-ever trip to the WFTDA’s finale.
“We came in as the number three and we’re leaving as the number three,” said Arch Rival jammer Brickyard afterwards. “We met our goal and are going to Champs and we can’t ask for anything more.”
Arch Rival found itself behind the eight-ball early as jams from Rocky Mountain’s Sweet Mary Pain and Phantom Menace yielded 14 and 15 points, respectively, resulted in a 29-0 deficit two jams in.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
St. Louis got on the scoreboard in jam three as Bricktator scored three and Annie Swanson collected an eight-point power jam on the next rotation to whittle the score to 29-11 at the 24:05 mark.
After Arch Rival’s Harmony Killerbruise got a 7-6 score in jam five, Brickyard’s seven-pointer scored at the 20:20 mark cut the deficit to ten points, 35-25.
In the next two rotations, the narrative of jammer penalties continued for both, which resulted in both teams recording 28 points apiece. The push resulted in Rocky Mountain maintaining the 10-point margin, 63-53 with 15:15 left in the first period.
Rocky Mountain’s Susy Pow posted a 22-11 power jam at the 13:40 mark to blossom the 5280 Fight Club’s lead to 85-64. As the period progressed, RMRG pushed ahead in scoring and held a 111-73 advantage with 5:30 left following Pain’s 14-5 power jam.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
But Pain’s hot start in scoring would quickly be snuffed as the veteran picked up her sixth penalty in jam 15, resulting in a power jam for Arch Rival’s Brickyard. A 15-4 strike ensued and St. Louis narrowed the score to 114-88 with 3:04 left in the first period.
The effect of Pain’s penalty, one short of fouling out, late in the first period was immediately felt as the jammer, who at the time was the leading scorer of the bronze medal game with 44 points, would now have to be benched for the remainder of the period and ultimately for the entire second half.
Arch Rival trailed 123-93 at intermission and the team had to do a little bit of soul searching in the locker room during the break.
“I think we reminded each other to play for fun knowing that this could be our last game,” said Brickyard of the halftime chat. “Just go out there and play like it was going to be our last game, hoping that it wasn’t going to be our last game. I just think having that calm togetherness and knowing that we wanted to be proud of what we did on the track at the end of the night no matter what happened is really what helped us.”
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
St. Louis chipped away at the differential in the opening stages of the second period and shaved Rocky Mountain’s lead to 135-110 with 21:45 left in the game.
And then it happened during the next seven minutes, the equivalent of Popeye eating his spinach. St. Louis fueled a 61-0 game-shifting rally over six jams that not only gave Arch Rival its first lead of the contest but also propelled momentum that grounded the 5280 Fight Club.
It began with Bricktator’s 18-point power jam with 20:15 left that made the game single-digits, 136-128.
Then after a scoreless jam, the Arch Rival blocking schema, paced by Emily Rinehart, Party Foul, Kayla Seiber, Shear-Ra Powers, Chewblocka, Shimmy Hoffa, Jamheiser Bush and Cloak N’ Drag-Her, effectively opened up the walls for their respective jammers while simultaneously causing the opposing jammers to commit power-jam-inducing penalties.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
Killerbruise scored a five-point power jam with 17:45 left to slice RMRG’s lead to 136-133. Brickyard continued the rally on the next rotation with an eight-point strike that flipped the scoreboard in favor of Arch Rival, 141-136 with 16:10 left.
Another Rocky Mountain jammer penalty resulted in a 15-0 power jam for St. Louis’ Mighty Mighty Boston that pushed the Arch Rival lead to 156-136 at the 14:30 mark. Brickatator added 15 via the power jam, its fourth in the seven-minute stretch, to finish the 61-point streak and Arch Rival possessed a 171-136 lead with 13:05 left.
Rocky Mountain tried to mount a comeback but as soon as it found its legs, Arch Rival would stop the surge with its own groundswell of points.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
Brickyard’s 11 point strike with 8:25 left pushed the score to 185-144.
Arch Rival broke the bi-centennial mark following Boston’s four-pointer scored with 3:40 remaining which made the score 200-151.
St. Louis’ turnaround play in the second half resulted in the 2:1 ratio in scoring for the period and ultimately the 224-185 bronze medal game win. Arch Rival, currently ranked #11 internationally in the WFTDA, ended the Tucson playoff with its highest finish ever and now continues its season with its inaugural appearance at the WFTDA Championships in November.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
All five Arch Rival jammers posted double-digits, paced by Bricktator’s 78 points.
“I feel like we’ve worked so hard this year,” said Brickyard, who finished with 50 points. “I’m so glad we get to go to Champs for all the people that are playing in their last season. We have a large amount of retirees this year and it just makes me so happy that they get to play at Champs before they’re done.”
INDIVIDUAL SCORING
ARCH RIVAL ROLLER GIRLS (224): Bricktator 78, Brickyard 50, Mighty Mighty Boston 46, Annie Swanson 28, Harmony Killerbruise 18.
For more information on the Arch Rival Roller Girls, go to its official FACEBOOK page.
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.
