Thursday, February 19, 2009

Bout: June 2008

Medina, Oh (June 6, 2008) - The NEO Rock 'n' Roller Girls, Akron/Canton's premier roller derby league, got their fishnets handed to them by the Burning River Roller Girls' B Team, the Xanadon'ts, in the bout headlined WhipHer (a spoof of the DEVO album). Although the NRRG put forth an admirable last period push, it wasn't enough to take down the BRRG who won a decisive 145-90 game.

The NRRG have been plagued by a series of injuries and were only able to field a 9 girl roster compared to the Xanadon'ts full roster with alternates. Is that a cop out for losing the game? Yes. From this zebra's point of view, the NRRG were bested by team effort and not numbers. The Cleveland girls just had better team work and game mentality. Many of the Cleveland girls were seasoned players and coming from a league of 80(+-) skaters, they had perhaps more practice and preparation. The NRRG are still a fledgling flock in their first season and needed this kind of whipping to get focused on improving their practices and stepping up their effort to contend with the big girls.

Among BRRG's finest in the event was rookie Ida Bitter and don't let her frenchfry frame fool you, she hits like a freight train and is a quick footed jammer. She had the most points scored for the evening with 41 and had an astonishing take-out as she leveled NRRG's B.F. Goodbytch which is no easy task.. Following closely behind was Pain Austen, the Xanadon'ts team captain who scored 36 points.

For the NRRG, Scarlet GoDancin was again their top scorer with 31, but what was more impressive was the triangle of doom that was Scarlet along with Chrissie B. Hynde and Phantom Fox. As the NRRG didn't have the luxury of rest in between jams, these three powerhoused through the whole game. Scarlet scored the most, but she also played that position more. Chrissie had more points per jam average with 3.25 with Phantom and Scarlet getting 2.8 and 2.6 respectively. It should also be mentioned that Scarlet and Chrissie appeared to have a side competition going to see who could spend more time in the penalty box.

All things being equal, the event was a smashing success. There were no serious injuries and the teams have such mutual respect and love that NRRG was happy to be spanked publicly by their derby sisters to the north. The NRRG are hosting Columbus' OHRG B team, Gang Green, on July 12 again at Pinnacle Sports in Medina in what's being called DestroyHer.

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