This past weekend the Lake Effect Furies traveled east to Portland, Maine for their second bout of the season to take on the Port Authorities in a much anticipated rematch.
Day Tripher started the bout out strong with the first lead jam of the night and four quick points. Maine was only able to score one point. The next nine jams were nail biters as the Furies blockers worked together to stop the talented Maine jammers and the Furies jammers battled to score as many points as possible. It wasn’t until Maine had its first power jam of the night when they were able to score 30 points giving the Port Authorities a commanding lead.
But the Furies fought back with Pepper Stix scoring eight points in the next jam and BJ Harmstrong scoring 13 points several jams later. By half-time, even though the score was 87-55 in Maine’s favor, it was clear that the Furies had improved since playing them a year ago.
The second half saw more strategy, harder hits and, unfortunately, more penalties. The final score was 191-104 with Maine getting the win. After the game, Vajenna Warrior, assistant captain, was chosen as the MVP by Maine. Grim D. Mise, one of Maine’s star jammers, was the Furies choice for MVP.
Last year’s bout against Maine was the first WFTDA ranked bout for the Furies and ended with a score 189 to 54 in favor of Maine.
“The Furies are working towards their goal of being a serious force to be reckoned within WFTDA,” said Furies Captain Lipservice. “During this game, we presented the Port Authorities with a challenge and we were able to close up the point spread. We are confident in our coaching staff and each other that our goal for reaching Regionals is attainable this season.”
Now the team waits to see how this bout might affect their WFTDA rankings and their goal to reach the top 10 in the Eastern Division. According to WFTDA’s fourth quarter rankings for 2011 for the Eastern Division, Maine was ranked tenth and the Furies were ranked 15th.
Next up is Suburbia Roller Derby’s All-Star Team the Suburban Brawl on March 3, 2012 in another rematch. Suburbia was ranked 12th in the Eastern Region in the WFTDA fourth quarter rankings.