McFLY BECOMES SKY HIGH WHILE DALLIS DEALS MALICE
by the Grand Poobah
(ST. LOUIS, MO) In front of another capacity crowd at the All-American Sports Mall on Saturday, an expansion team upended the defending ARRG champions while a pack of camo-clad skaters vaulted into second place in the 2010-11 standings with a dominating win.
Rebel Skate Alliance, ARRG’s newest edition to intraleague play, defeated the two-time defending champion Stunt Devils 86-83. With the win, RSA improves to 2-0 on the season and in the process broke a seven-bout winning streak by the purple-clad contingent.
In the evening’s other match-up, the Smashinistas evened its record to 1-1 with a 131-59 thrashing of the M-80s. The win – and the margin of victory – gives the Smashies possession of second place in the league standings.
The outcomes of Saturday’s dual tilt resulted in a league that’s anyones for the taking come April 2011.
REBEL SKATE ALLIANCE 86 STUNT DEVILS 83
It had been the first time in a long time that the All-American had seen a bout that encapsulated such varying degrees of drama – before, during and afterwards.
The Stunts Devils – winners of seven straight bouts dating back to August 2009 – had been dealt several major blows to its roster days before the bout. All-Star blocker Grave Danger, injured for the season opener, went under the knife late last week for a completely torn ACL. As a result, the veteran would be out for the remainder of the season.
As if that weren’t enough, primary jammer South City Shiner and supplemental jammer Whipped Scream would fall to injury as well, subtracting two key cogs of the Stunts’ offense.
And those three absences would prove to be – on the surface – advantageous for Rebel Skate Aliiance, ARRG’s expansion team, who were looking to notch its second win in as many bouts played.
Then mere hours before the first whistle, the Rebs were dealt a huge setback of their own, as jammer/blocker Party Foul – who notched 35 points in the season opener – would be missing the bout as well.
“I got a text from her hours before the bout saying she was sick and couldn’t be there,” said RSA co-captain Smart McFly of the situation. “She was upset and really heartbroken about it.”
McFly personally knows the frustration that’s associated with situations like these. Injury kept herself out of play for a majority of the season prior.
And for a situation like this to happen on short-notice, this meant that numerous strategies practiced pre-bout would have to be modified “on-the-fly” by McFly and others.
“As a co-captain, I know that it sucks,” she said. “I felt that with her being out that there was going to be a lot more weight on my shoulders. But we all figured that we had to do what we had to do.”
In short, they had to do A LOT, with little time to spare.
As a result, it turned out to be a battle that contained A LOT.
A 3-3 deadlock in the bout’s first minutes was widened to a 12-3 lead for the Stunt Devils following a 9-point jam by Artemischief at the 24:50 mark.
RSA co-captain Chewblocka, primarily a blocker who was inserted into the RSA jammer rotation in Party Foul’s absence, would counter with a two-point score.
Artemischief would retaliate with a three-pointer to extend the Stunts lead to 16-5.
RSA jammer The Bevo Kill “windmilled” her way to a four-point tally to cut the gap to seven with 18:00 left in the first half.
Then two minutes later, the bout’s first primary shot would be delivered as Artemischief notched a 10-pointer. Although the RSA’s Starry Starry Fight collected four points of her own on the jam, the Stunts doubled-up the RSA 26-13.
A four-pointer by Morgan LeFaetal and a three-pointer by Mighty Mighty Boston would extend the Stunt Devils’ lead to 33-15 with 9:00 remaining.
And the bout began to look like it would result in the normal “purple-print” that had been a fixture in ARRG Nation.
But then the RSA’s Smarty scored points that were hearty.
The co-captain exploded for a 13-point jam with 7:48 remaining, cutting the gap to five.
Following a three-point score by the Stunt’s Boston, McFly would lead the charge again with another eight-point score.
As a result of the 21-3 RSA run, the bout was tied 36-36 with 4:30 left in the first half.
Both teams would trade points as the first half wound down, and at the intermission the Stunts defiantly clung onto a 42-41 edge.
The Stunts knew that their opposition had recovered…and they didn’t want that to happen again after the break.
The defending champions started the second half with a 23-8 run. Quick strikes by Artemischief and Boston, supplemented by a 14-point combo by LeFatael, extended the Stunts’ lead to 65-49 with 20 minutes remaining.
But with the defending champs eyeing their eighth straight win, the bout sparked déjà vu….and then some.
RSA would go on a 30-0 run in the bout’s next ten minutes. McFly would notch a 16-point bout-changing jam in the process and when the dust had settled, the Alliance would sport a 79-65 lead with 11:00 left.
Yet, the Stunts would not go down without swinging. The purple-clad skaters would go on an 18-0 run of their own, thanks to a 14-point power jam by LeFaetal with 3:45 remaining. Another momentum shift resulted in another lead change, which now saw the Stunts up 83-79.
RSA’s McFly would score a three-pointer on the next jam to cut the gap to one, and in the process, keep ARRG Nation on the edge of their seats with under two minutes remaining.
And the drama continued….
The bout’s next jam saw RSA’s Starry Starry Fight – a Stunt the year prior – score four to give the lead back to the Rebs 86-83 with :38 remaining.
Yet there was time left for one more jam. Following dramatic pack positioning, RSA’s McFly muscled her way to the front of the pack and called off the jam to preserve victory for ARRG’s expansion squad, which now sits alone on top of the leader board with a 2-0 record.
“We did not go into our first two games thinking that we were going to win them and for some reason it has just worked out well for us,” said RSA’s Starry Starry Fight, who finished the bout with 21 points. “That’s not to say that we weren’t taking it seriously, but we thought that if we didn’t win, it was not going to be the end of the world for us.”
But for the former Stunt Devil, the world is currently right. The win might have been the most satisfying one of her multi-year career.
“It is amazing. I cried for the first time tonight….ever,” said Starry. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a win that was as good as this one was.”
McFly – another former Stunt – scored a bout-high 50 points to lead the Rebel Skate Alliance. Morgan LaFaetal netted an ARRG personal-best of 41 points to lead the Stunt Devils, who dropped to 1-1, while Artemischief added 35.
And for Rebel Skate Alliance, who had claimed from the outset that they wanted to be known as “the league’s smartest team” this season, the win correlates with the “workwoman-like” methodology of the newly-transplanted squad.
“We know we’re the underdogs (this season) and every bout we play we keep thinking we are the underdogs,” said RSA’s Bevo Kill, who notched 11 points. “Last time I said we cried a little, this time I screamed and cried a lot when we won. This was insane.”
And the journey of ARRG’s “cerebral assassins” continues…..
UNOFFICIAL SCORING
REBEL SKATE ALLIANCE: Smarty McFly 50, Starry Starry Fight 21, The Bevo Kill 11, Chewblocka 2
STUNT DEVILS: Morgan LaFaetal 41, Artemischief 35, Mighty Mighty Boston 7
SMASHINISTAS 131 M-80s 59
Both teams had plenty to prove following season opening losses…and neither wanted to end the evening with a goose-egg in the win column.
It resulted in another nip/tuck battle early on.
Smashinistas’ jammer Punches PileUp notched a bout-opening 4-point jam to gain the early advantage. The M-80′s EnYa Nightmare countered with a four-pointer of her own to tie the score.
Two jams later – the same result. The Educator scored four for the Smashies while M-80s rookie May Require Stitches netted four for the firecrackers, resulting in an 8-8 tie five minutes in.
The battled continued as the first half progressed. Following a one-pointer scored by Educator, Smashies’ co-captain Downtown Dallis collected five to give the camo-clad skaters a 14-8 lead.
Stitches would counter with a 9-point jam to give the M-80s a 17-14 edge ten minutes in.
And that would be the last of scoring for the M-80s for quite a while. A 22-0 run for the Smashies, accented by a 9-pointer by Dallis, would give them a 36-17 lead in the bout’s next ten minutes.
The Educator would later score eight to add insult and expand the lead to 48-19 Smashinistas.
Stitches would tally five points to pull the M-80s to 48-24 with 5:00 remaining in the first half, but the Smashies would score 11 unanswered points to pull out to a commanding 59-24 lead at halftime.
In didn’t take long for the camo-contingent to seal the deal early in the second half. Dallis’ 25-point power jam extended the lead to 85-24 three minutes in.
The M-80s jamming combo of Stitches, Nightmare and Black Market Baby tried to keep pace as the second half progressed, but the deficit was too large to chip away at.
Altogether the Smashinistas outscored the M-80s 72-35 in the second half to coast to the victory, thanks in part to Dallis’ 45 second-half points.
“We were really hungry,” said Dallis, who finished with 67 points – an ARRG season’s best. “We wanted this and worked really hard. Every girl just wanted it really badly out here.”
Indeed. The victory – and the team’s accumulation of points – now finds the Smashies (1-1) in second place in the ARRG 2010-11 season standings.
The M-80s, who fell to 0-2 with the loss, were paced by Stitches’ 24, while Black Market Baby added 15.
In the end, those who might have questioned the output of the Smashinistas earlier this season were given notice that this is one scrappy team to be aware of.
“This win was extremely important,” said Smashies’ jammer Educator, who scored 40 points in the bout. “We had a lot to prove. It helped our momentum moving through the rest of the season and I think we’re hungry for a championship.”
More importantly on the surface, this was a victory that put their mindset back into a positive progression.
“I always felt like we had a high level of confidence because we have awesome talent on our team,” said Smashie blocker Davey Blockit following the bout. “We just saw what we could do when we play together.”
The league has been given notice….
UNOFFICIAL SCORING
SMASHINISTAS: Downtown Dallis 67, The Educator 40, Punches PileUp 18, Shimmy Hoffa 4, The Forecloser 2
M-80s: May Require Stitches 24, Black Market Baby 15, EnYa Nightmare 11, The Siege 4, Joanie Rollmoan 2
Next Week In The ARRG Newscenter: Hells LaBelle will check back in for another round of “20 Questions” as the league heads into the swing of a new calendar year.
The Grand Poobah and Hells LaBelle are bout announcers for the Arch Rival Roller Girls. Check back in this section on Mondays for the latest in ARRG news/information.
ARRG Nation witnessed an appearance at December’s intraleague bouts by Stunt Devils’ blocker Grave Danger, who has been out of action since suffering an ACL injury prior to the 2010-11 season opener - an injury that will keep her out for the entire intraleague season.
