(PORTLAND, OR) St. Louis-based Arch Rival Roller Derby had a very patient wait before their first game played at the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) championship tournament being held this weekend at Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
On Friday’s first day of competition, the Arch Rival All-Stars never played at all and merely watched games. That was a direct result of them winning a regional playoff in the WFTDA’s post-season series, which netted the team automatic quarterfinal-round placement in this weekend’s global bracket.
One could assume that ARCH was feeling like a caged tiger waiting to be released Saturday afternoon prior to their meeting with the Angel City Hollywood Scarlets with a potential entry to the semifinals within catch.
The Californian opponent was seeking upward trajectory themselves after claiming a 171-127 victory over France’s Nothin Toulouse in Friday’s quarterfinal play-in round.
Arch Rival utilized a solid first half that helped construct their 151-130 triumph over the Hollywood Scarlets to advance in the winner’s portion of the bracket.
With the tight win, ARCH (10-0) advances to Saturday’s semifinals for a 10 PM (Central) match-up against either Denver or Crime City.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
“We knew it was going to be a grind,” said blocker dad bod afterwards. “It took us a minute to get locked in but I’m proud of how we grinded out that game.”
The quarterfinal was a tale of two halves. ARCH played very clean in the opening frame and cobbled a 42-point lead at intermission. Conversely, St. Louis penalties across the board narrowed the differential as Angel City reduced the gap to single digits early in the second period.
Feeling the heat, Arch Rival cleaned up their game en route to the 21-point duke.
“In practice, when we get penalties, we work on just being prepared,” added jammer Pork Tchoup Slamwich. “We’re like, ‘Let’s go back in our tool kit’ and see how we can use that in the game.”
Trailing 4-0 after two jams, ARCH claimed their first lead of the quarterfinal with co-captain Vicious Van GoGo’s seven-pointer that flipped the scoreboard to 7-4.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
This began a stretch of four lead jams for St. Louis, resulting in 23 points straight. ARCH pushed the score to 23-4 seven minutes deep following co-captain Bricktator’s nine-pointer.
To their credit, Angel City bounced back with back-to-back four pointers from veteran jammers Freight Train and Rachel Rotten. The Scarlets’ 8-0 push shored the score to 23-12 at the 21:20 mark.
As the period progressed, ARCH widened the lead to 35-20 following Swanson’s seven-point rotation.
Arch Rival then made their most-impressive stretch by claiming three more consecutive leads, resulting in 27 points.
Paced by blockers K. Woodward, Bolt Action, Cloak N’ Drag-Her, LuxFurious, Shear-Ra Powers, dad bod, Eirinn Go Brawl, Pegasass, Cruella and Sheesh, ARCH widened the score to 62-32 with ten minutes left in the half.
Jedi Knight-N-Gale’s dozen added with 4:30 remaining pushed the margin to 77-41.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
Arch Rival finished the half with a 12-4 stretch and held a 89-47 lead at intermission.
That comfortable lead was quickly erased as the Hollywood Scarlets showed their moxie.
Trailing 93-57 heading into Jam 5, Angel City went on a 34-3 rally, launched by Freight Train’s 20-pointer that narrowed the score to 93-73 at the 24:20 mark. Rotten followed with a 11-point rotation that sliced Arch Rival’s lead to single digits, 93-84, with 21:40 left. A 3-3 push in the next two jams kept the distance at nine points.
ARCH rebounded with 20 uncontested points which made the score 116-87 following Bricktator’s dozen scored with 14:10 remaining.
Angel City immediately countered with a dozen of their own and trailed 116-99 with 11:20 left.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
These swift shifts of momentum perpetually continued down the stretch. When it appeared that Arch Rival would begin to pull away, the Hollywood Scarlets pulled themselves back in.
It’s the kind of pressure that one prepares for in post-season play.
“We practice with chaos around us,” said Slamwich. “We have loud music. We’re blasting things. At the end of the day, we remember that we are a family.”
It was nerves of steel, as well as patience, persistence and hard blocking, that yielded Arch Rival’s quarterfinal victory. After Bricktator scored eight on the game’s penultimate jam, ARCH held a 147-111 with 1:45 left.
And it was a good thing that buffer was in place because Angel City collected late-game theatrics as jammer Schadenfreude’s 19-4 final jam made the outcome tighter than projected.
Despite being outscored in the second period 83-62, the halftime cushion helped Arch Rival collect the 151-130 quarterfinal win.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
Brickator topped Arch Rival scoring with 68 points.
The team has little time to prepare for their semi-final game later tonight and will have to have a more consistent output if they wish to advance to their first-ever Hydra championship finale on Sunday.
“Something we did well but need to grow is just being square and ready,” assessed dad bod. “There are going to be times when we get beat, but just have to keep playing our game.”
Angel City, paced by Freight Train’s 63 points, finished the tournament 1-1 and 7-8 overall for the season.
INDIVIDUAL SCORING
ARCH RIVAL (151): Bricktator 68, Swanson 27, Vicous Van GoGo 25, Jedi Knight-N-Gale 23, Pork Tchoup Slamwich 4, Shear-Ra Powers 4.
ANGEL CITY (130): Freight Train 63, Schadenfreude 30, Rachel Rotten 24, Ghetto Fabu-lez 12.
Arch City Media will continue coverage as the tournament progresses.
By trade, he is a six-time, regional Emmy Award-winning news videographer/editor for KTVI/KPLR-TV. By hobby, he is a writer for Litehouse Media, dating back to February 2014. Emphasis is on featuring and promoting local women's sports, but will cover anything that is not reported by traditional media outlets. Also a contributor to local concert reviews. Finally, he prefers Diet Ski over coffee.
