Apr 23, 2014 | Bout News

Beauty and the Brawlers: Garda Belts Win the Golden Skate

By: Fire Wally

The Garda Belts made roller derby history Saturday night by winning their first-ever Golden Skate in the tenth home season of the Minnesota RollerGirls. Led by lead scorer Slambda Phage and supported by rock-solid blockers that held the Atomic Bombshells scoreless for a long stretch of the first half, the Gardas defeated the Bombshells by a final score of 141-119.

12 Minutes of Perfection

The Garda Belts have proven themselves to be a high-performing team this year, but they have never been more dominant than the first 12 minutes of Saturday’s championship bout. Slambda Phage started off the fireworks for the Gardas, muscling her way through the middle of the pack for lead jammer then taking advantage of a power jam to post 25 points in the opening jam. Phage and Wolfe bite alternated between small steps forward and huge leaps as the Gardas score ratcheted up to 38, then 46, then 57, all while the Bombshells remained scoreless.

And of course, shutting out the Atomic Bombshells for 12 straight minutes takes some incredible blocking. Each wall the Garda Belts sent out was strong, coordinated, and deadly effective at containing the orange jammer. Garda fans enjoyed some solid positional work from Soft Serve and Citizen Pain, a few spectacular shoves to the outside from Shiva Shank’n and Second Hand Smoke, and some great displays track awareness from newer skaters like Dr. Sorders recycling to join her wall or Myrna Ploy creating a “bridge” to maintain pack definition and keep her teammates in play.

Bombshells Stop the Bleeding

After Madame De Stompadour earned the Bombshells their first points of the game, the score stood at 57-3 with 7 minutes remaining in the half. Phage scored 4 more for the Gardas on the next jam, but then Crowella De Vil proved that the Bombshells would not go down without a fight.

After Wolfe Bite was sent to the penalty box for blocking to the back, Crow quickly juked her way through the Gardas wall for lead jammer status and 30 seconds unopposed. On her first scoring pass, Bombshell blockers Hurtrude Stein and Diamond Rough cleared out the Garda blockers to clear an easy path for Crow to earn 5 points. Wolfe was released from the box after another easy 5-point pass for Crow, but the Bombshells wall of Trudy, D-Rough, Bully Jean, and Terror Swift continued to stymie the green jammer. Crow earned 26 points before she was caught cutting the track on Second Hand Smoke, then scored 12 more coming out of the box on the next jam. 5 more from Stompy made the score 77-46 Gardas at the half.

Bombshells Chip Away in the Second Half

Phage re-asserted her dominance early in the second half, scoring 18 to make the score 95-55 with 16 minutes remaining in the game. From there, the Bombshells began to claw their way back to striking distance, with a 10-point jam from Fannie Tanner followed by a 13-point jam from Crow. Phage then notched the Gardas score forward by 4, setting up Soft Serve to jam for the Gardas against Fannie Tanner.

A huge hit from Olga Olgilthorpe sent Fannie to the back of the pack and allowed Soft Serve to earn lead jammer status, but Diamond Rough drew a track cut penalty on Softie, giving Fannie a power jam opportunity on which she earned 14 points. After starting the game down by 57, the Bombshells had brought the score to 111-92, effectively a one-jam margin, with 9 minutes left in the game.

Gardas Finish as Strong as they Start

Once again it was Slambda Phage who started a dominant streak for the Garda Belts. After earning lead jammer against a Bombshells pack cut down by penalties, Phage scored 6. Phage then alternated jams with Second Hand Smoke, widening the Gardas lead to 119, then 124, then 129 all while the Garda blocking crew kept the Bombshells stuck at 92. Maul E. Coddle and Tara Bichapart added their names to the Garda’s list of exceptional blocking performers while the Gardas widened their lead to 129-96 with 4 minutes left in the game.

Freeze Baby and Fannie Tanner earned some of that margin back for the Bombshells on the next two jams, but the Bombshells ran out of time to try and take the lead before the end of the game. With about 30 seconds left on the period clock, Soft Serve pushed through the inside line for lead jammer, then waved to the erupting crowd before calling off the jam and claiming the Garda Belts’ first Golden Skate championship.

Box Scores

Courtesy of Our Man Flip

ATOMIC BOMBSHELLS — 119 Points
9 Lead Jams
6 Power Jams
50 Points From Power Jams
13 Grand Slams
10 Jam Wins
29 Penalties

101 Crowella De Vil — 4-8, 58 pts
2 Fannie Tanner — 2-10, 35 pts
0054 Freeze Baby — 1-4, 18 pts
1764 Madame de Stompadour — 2-5, 8 pts
6 Roley Ann Lena — 0-2, 0 pts

GARDA BELTS — 141 Points
21 Lead Jams
4 Power Jams
40 Points From Power Jams
13 Grand Slams
16 Jam Wins
26 Penalties

22 Slambda Phage — 12-14, 92 points
52 Wolfe Bite — 2-4, 21 pts
16 Soft Serve — 3-3, 14 pts
1072 ShivaShankn — 0-1, 8 pts
9 Second Hand Smoke — 4-7, 6 pts