The Rolling Blackouts began their 2013 Tilted Thunder Rail Bird season with their eyes on a 3rd straight league title on Saturday night at the Comcast Arena in Everett. Their opponent in this one was Royal Crush.
Much like the Sugar Skulls in the first bout of the evening, Royal Crush found it hard to score points in the first quarter. Good, solid defense by the Rolling Blackouts limited their opponents to only 2 points the entire first 12 minutes. However, the Royal Crush defense did a decent job of keeping the Blackouts within sight on the scoreboard. Although the Blackouts earned lead jammer status in 8 of the 14 jams played in the first quarter, they never collected more than 5 points in any of those jams. However, the Blackouts did score often enough to find themselves up 33-2 after the first quarter.
Scoring was still difficult for Royal Crush in the second half. In the 12 jams run during that period, they were able to score in only two of them (MK Ultra picking up 3 points in the 7th jam and Blazin Angirah collecting 3 more in the 10th run). They also still did a decent enough job at holding the Blackouts to small point totals. But Florence the Machine finally posted the first double-digit scoring run of the game in the 4th jam of the second quarter, picking up a solid 10-0 decision for the undefeated defending champs. Em-ergency drew the Blackouts out even more in the 8th jam of the 2nd quarter with a 9-0 decision that made the score 61-8. And to close out the scoring in the first half, Thumper Skull piled on a 13-0 decision for the Blackouts that gave her team the lead at 80-11 after the first half.
The 3rd quarter saw more of the same type of action the first two quarters had; both teams played decently defensively while jammers were held to smaller point totals. The Royal Crush defense did a nice job in the opening jam, holding Florence the Machine to only 5 points during a power jam. In fact, the Blackouts were able to score in only four of the eleven jams the third quarter had to offer. However, one of those jams was Donita Mann's 10-0 pasting in the 7th jam. Meanwhile, the Royal Crush jammers were still having their troubles, but started finding a little more success here and there. Three 5-0 decisions more than doubled their first half scoring total, but they still trailed the mighty Rolling Blackouts 104-26 heading into the final quarter of play.
To kick off the final stanza, Royal Crush almost matched their entire score from the first three quarters in the first two jams. Sunny Wytha Chansapain started it off with a monster 15-0 power jam decision in the first jam. That was followed-up by MK Ultra's 10-2 decision over Shanimal in the 2nd jam. But after that, the Rolling Blackouts pretty much pulled the plug on their opponents. A couple more 10-0 jams and more stifling defense that held Royal Crush to a mere 9 more points after their excellent opening of the last quarter pretty much sealed the deal. Once the final whistle blew, the Rolling Blackouts skated off into the sunset with a 147-60 win.
Three Stars
3. Sunny Wytha Chansapain. Overall she was the best player on Royal Crush in this one. She was their most effective jammer, picking up 23 points in 6 jams with the jammers cap on her bonnet. She also chipped-in nicely with 6 blocked jammers within the pack.
2. Rosary Bleeds. She led the winning team in blocking stats in this one, picking up 9 blocked jammers along with creating some daylight for her jammers with 4 hole-opening offensive blocks. She even closed the game out by picking up 4 points as a jammer.
1. Florence the Machine. She led the game with 37 points in 8 jams played with the star on her hat. I also picked up her successfully stopping the opposing jammer on a pair of occasions. Really, the Rolling Blackouts numbers were incredibly even up and down their lineup in this one. At the end of the day, this was actually an incredibly impressive overall team effort on their part. One of the best I've ever seen, actually.
Key Jam of the Game
I'll go with Florence the Machine's 10-0 decision in the 4th jam of the second quarter. Although Royal Crush was still hanging around in this one, they still weren't putting points on the board. And that jam seemed to separate the two teams on the scoreboard for good.
Stats
Jamming
Rolling Blackouts (Jams - Lead Jammer - Jams in Box - Points)
Thumper Skull (7-5-1-29)
BERSERKER (7-4-0-19)
Wicked Awesome (7-4-2-11)
Florence the Machine (8-5-0-37)
Honey Badger (7-6-1-22)
Panty SHOT (2-0-0-0)
Em-ergency (3-2-0-13)
Donita Mann (1-1-0-10)
Tonya Hardrolling (1-0-0-0)
Barbie Beatdown (2-0-1-0)
Calamity McTastic (2-1-1-0)
Shanimal (1-1-0-2)
Rosary Bleeds (1-1-0-4)
Royal Crush (Jams - Lead Jammer - Jams in Box - Points)
Zombrie (15-5-1-10)
Tae Kwon Dope (4-0-0-1)
MK Ultra (9-1-0-14)
Blazin Angirah (9-2-1-9)
Beast Lightning (4-1-0-3)
Sunny Wytha Chansapain (6-5-0-23)
Sobriety Tess (2-1-1-0)
Blocking
Rolling Blackouts (Blocked Jammers - Open Holes - Big Hits)
Barbie Beatdown (8-0-2)
BERSERKER (2-0-0)
Calamity McTastic (4-2-0)
Donita Mann (5-5-1)
Em-ergency (7-0-0)
Florence the Machine (2-0-0)
Honey Badger (8-0-1)
Panty SHOT (3-1-0)
Rosary Bleeds (9-4-1)
Shanimal (3-0-0)
Square Ruthless (5-2-0)
Thumper Skull (8-0-1)
Wicked Awesome (4-0-1)
Tonya Hardrolling (2-0-0)
Royal Crush (Blocked Jammers - Open Holes - Big Hits)
Block N Blue (0-1-0)
Creep Suzette (11-2-2)
DeeWitched (2-0-0)
MK Ultra (2-1-0)
Smolderine (9-1-0)
Sobriety Tess (14-5-2)
Sunny Wytha Chansapain (6-0-0)
Beast Lightning (1-0-0)
Zombrie (2-1-0)
Tae Kwon Dope (1-0-1)
Penalties
Rolling Blackouts (PIM)
Barbie Beatdown (3)
Donita Mann (1)
Em-ergency (2)
Honey Badger (1)
Panty SHOT (1)
Rosary Bleeds (5)
Shanimal (2)
Square Ruthless (1)
Thumper Skull (4)
Wicked Awesome (2)
Tonya Hardrolling (1)
Royal Crush (PIM)
Blazin Angirah (1)
Creep Suzette (4)
DeeWitched (1)
MK Ultra (1)
Smolderine (5)
Sobriety Tess (6 - ejected)
Sunny Wytha Chansapain (2)
Beast Lightning (2)
Zombrie (3)
Tae Kwon Dope (1)
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