The first Tilted Thunder Rail Birds bout on Sunday night at the Comcast Arena in Everett featured the defending TTRB champion Rolling Blackouts taking on the Sugar Skulls.
And right from the beginning, this game wasn't even close. The Rolling Blackouts flew out of the gates and held a 32-6 lead after the first 12 minute quarter. The beating continued during the 2nd quarter as the Blackouts held a dominating 88-16 lead at halftime. One sign of the total domination the Rolling Blackouts had on this night rests in the fact that they were successful in shutting-out the Sugar Skulls offense in 15 of the 21 jams played in the first half.
The third quarter was the most lopsided of the match as the Blackouts claimed that 12 minute span by the score of 66-7. The Sugar Skulls did manage to more than double their score in the 4th quarter by picking up 28 points, but it wasn't nearly enough as the Rolling Blackouts began their defense of their championship with a dominating 188-51 win.
Three Stars
3. Rosary Bleeds. The Rolling Blackouts blocker had a pretty nice night for herself, picking up 9 blocked jammers, opening a pair of holes for her jammer to scoot through and dished-out 3 big hits that sent her opponents crashing to the floor. She also donned the jammers cap for three jams and picked up 18 points (in two jams, really. The third she sat in the penalty box with the star on her head).
2. BERSERKER. Averaging 4.6 points per jam in this one, the Rolling Blackouts seemingly had an easy time running up the score. But BERSERKER led the scoring parade by picking up an impressive 63 points in only 8 jams. And she never once served a single minute in the penalty box during the entire game.
1. Donita Mann. This is a VERY rare time when I can say that I saw something truly positive with a 137 point blow out. And in this case, it would be Rolling Blackouts player Donita Mann. She had a night for the ages on my blocking sheet! She picked up 16 blocked jammers (rare, but done a few times a year by other blockers I follow). She had 5 big hits (quite a few, but also seen now and then during each season). But the biggest stat for me was her 8 hole-opening blocks that helped her jammer make her way through the pack easier. I can watch a league for an entire season and most blockers don't pick up 8 open hole blocks all together. In my 5 years or so of keeping these stats, the only other time I can think of a blocker who had that type of night was Treasure Valley's Scarlet Danger in (I believe) 2008. And outside of lighting-up Sugar Skulls jammer Na Cho Dao Lin in the final jam of the 3rd quarter (easily one of the 5 hardest clean hits I've seen in my almost seven years of roller derby...another impressive accomplishment), she didn't do it in all that spectacular of a fashion. She was always just in the right place at the right time. And when the opportunites presented themselves, she simply did and finished her job. It was good, textbook, fundamental roller derby at it's finest. Hence the reason I've been crowing on and on and on during this usually little bit of reasoning behind me picking her as the #1 star in this game. It truly was a stunning display.
Key Jam of the Game
Well, I'll dig all the way back to the 8th jam of the first half. The Rolling Blackouts had been slowly extending their lead. But they really dropped the hammer when Honey Badger earned lead jammer status and picked up the first double-digit point total of the night. If it wasn't obvious that this game was over up until then, it certainly was after that jam.
Bad Girl of the Game
Sugar Skulls jammer Piston Vinegar won the penalty race by serving 6 minutes in the sin bin by my count.
Stats
Jamming
Rolling Blackouts (Jams - Lead Jammer - Jams in Box - Points)
Honey Badger (6-2-1-26)
BERSERKER (8-6-0-63)
Thumper Skull (6-2-1-16)
Wicked Awesome (8-5-1-36)
Calamity McTastic (2-1-0-0)
Rosary Bleeds (3-2-1-18)
Donita Mann (4-3-1-17)
Em-ergency (1-1-0-4)
Barbie Beatdown (1-1-0-10)
Shanimal (2-1-1-4)
Sugar Skulls (Jams - Lead Jammer - Jams in Box - Points)
Na Cho Dao Lin (8-0-1-0)
Krozo the Klown (11-3-3-16)
Piston Vinegar (11-4-3-13)
HammonDa Bone (4-0-1-0)
Frankie Blackeye (2-1-0-4)
Karny Aslaughta (2-0-0-8)
Bad Wolf (3-0-1-10)
Blocking
Rolling Blackouts (Blocked Jammers - Open Holes - Big Hits)
Barbie Beatdown (5-3-0)
BERSERKER (2-0-0)
Calamity McTastic (3-0-0)
Donita Mann (16-8-5)
Em-ergency (9-1-1)
Honey Badger (0-1-0)
Rosary Bleeds (8-2-3)
Shanimal (2-0-0)
Shirley Sore (3-0-0)
Thumper Skull (8-2-0)
Sugar Skulls (Blocked Jammers - Open Holes - Big Hits)
Frankie Blackeye (6-0-0)
HammonDa Bone (7-0-1)
Bad Wolf (6-4-0)
Dawn Taze Inferno (1-0-0)
Karny Aslaughta (5-0-0)
Krozo the Klown (4-0-0)
Na Cho Dao Lin (2-0-0)
Piston Vinegar (1-0-0)
Stank A. Pantz (5-3-1)
Penalties
Rolling Blackouts (PIM)
Donita Mann (4)
Em-ergency (1)
Honey Badger (1)
Rosary Bleeds (3)
Shanimal (1)
Wicked Awesome (1)
Thumper Skull (3)
Sugar Skulls (PIM) \
Frankie Blackeye (2)
HammonDa Bone (3)
Bad Wolf (1)
Karny Aslaughta (1)
Krozo the Klown (3)
maraschino jeri (2)
Na Cho Dao Lin (2)
Piston Vinegar (6)
Stank A. Pantz (3)
Tara Hoedown (2)
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