Last Friday night’s game between the Alley Kats and the Suicidal Saucies had everything you want in a night of roller derby. Buffalo Riverworks was packed with around 1,000 fans who let WNY know how much they loved the derby action. The night had huge hits (and even an occasional referee take out), power jams, tie jams and, of course, some jammer on jammer action. The Alley Kats got revenge against the Saucies for their only loss of the season so far with a final score of 184-155.
These teams met back in early February when the Saucies earned their only win of the season (so far) in a very tight game (174-158). The Kats had defeated the Devil Dollies prior to the Saucies game in a last jam win (164-161) and then again with a bit more comfortable margin (133-115). The Saucies have fallen to the Dollies in both of their meetings so far (179-113 and 173-161).
“We really have been taking each game one at a time and not thinking about the past,” said Alley Kats’ Captain Flocking Girl Scout. “We wanted to stay focused, stay in control ourselves, play our game and have fun.”
“We got them to play our game but we struggled a bit with penalties, but in the end we pulled off the win and had a lot of fun.”
On Friday night the Saucies were missing their key jammer Rosi, although blockers Freshslaughter Pearl and Poisonous Peaches returned for this game after sitting out the last one. The Saucies used rookie Sigourney Cleaver, Flame ThrowHer and Chet UpStandUp in their regular jammer rotation, tossing in Crimes a Thrashin and Legs Luther as relief jammers. In several jams, the Saucies kept things family-like by sending out Legs to jam against her niece Karsmashian.
Sigourney Cleaver was the most successful Saucie jammer throughout the night gathering 78 of the Saucies points. The rookie has had an excellent year so far and has showed the fortitude and determination of a veteran skater, especially when jamming against the likes of Alley Kats’ blockers PaulverizHer and Half Pint Destroyer.
The Kats’ jammers are significantly more seasoned than the Saucies jammers. Although Ashes t’Ashes is technically in her second year, she transferred from Niagara Roller Girls after skating with them for 2 seasons, and has skated with the Lake Effect Furies since her arrival at QCRG. Ashes grabbed the lion’s share of the Kats’ points with 75. Evil-Lyn Cognito is in her 6th season as a jammer and Karsmashian is in her 2nd as well. The Saucies, on the other hand, have rookie jammers (Rosi, Sigourney and Chet) except Flame (who took last season off so this technically is her 3rd season of game play).
The Alley Kats kept to their regular jammer rotation as well, relying heavily on Ashes t’Ashes, Evil-Lyn Cognito and Karsmashian. Half Pint Destroyer isn’t a relief jammer, per se, unless the relief a team needs is a hard hitting, bulldozer of a jammer to crash through walls and grab points along her way. The Kats used her towards the end of the game to extend their lead with a 14 point jam.
The Saucies might say that if they had had Rosi, they would have won. And the Kats might say, if they had less penalties, they would have had a more decisive win. No one will know until the next time these teams meet when Rosi is back in action.
The Kats were penalty heavy with 43 total penalties (23 in the first, 20 in the second) but the Saucies weren’t too far behind them with 36 total (18 in each period). Jammer penalties were heavier on the Alley Kat side too with 12 jammer penalties whereas the Saucies only had 7. The Alley Kats had one foul out (Anna Killispree) and the Saucies’ Poisonous Peaches was 1 away from fouling out (6 penalties).
The Saucies got an early power jam and Chet UpStandUp and her blockers were able to make quick work of it and the Saucies took an early lead 23-5. But the Alley Kats struck back soon and they struck back hard holding the Saucies scoreless for 9 consecutive jams while tossing points onto the scoreboard. Once the Kats took the lead, they didn’t let it go.
That’s not to say the Saucies didn’t come close. Sigorney Cleaver had an 18 point jam towards the end of the first period that brought the Saucies to within 16. Early in the second period Legs Luther had a 9 point jam that brought the Saucies to within a point of the Kats and Sigourney tied up the score towards the end of the second period, bringing the crowd to its feet.
“I thought they were going to be able to win it until the very end,” said long-time fan Dick Mauer from his seat in the bleachers.
Not too long after that jam, the Kats sent out Half Pint Destroyer with the star on her helmet and she cruised through with 14 points and try as they might, the Saucies weren’t able to put enough points on the board to get on top.
“Our team is the most diverse from the reorganization and our goal for the season is to continue to merge into a cohesive team,” said Saucies Captain Wailing Wench. “It can take years for a team to find cohesion and the fact that the score was so close says a lot about the amount of talent on our team. I am really proud of how we’ve been able to pull together as a team.”
Sigourney Cleaver took home the DIYBFLO Fan Fave award for the Saucies for the game while Half Pint Destroyer won it for the Kats.
The Devil Dollies and Suicidal Saucies will be back in home team action on Sunday, April 10 at approximately 4 p.m. following a Junior derby game at 2 p.m. The Kats and Saucies will go at it again on May 1, at 6 p.m. as the home team season heats up, heading into Playoffs. You can always find tickets at qcrg.net/tickets.