GANG GREEN TAKEN DOWN BY NAPTOWN WARNING BELLES, 88-185
Ohio’s Gang Green started and ended strong against Indianapolis’s Naptown Warning Belles on Saturday. It was the middle part of the bout that caused them trouble.
Gang Green jammer Hop Devil, who jammed thirteen times and won three leads (23%), breezed through the pack to gain the lead on the first jam. Nicold N Deadly (thirteen jams, five leads (38%)) overcame a low block on the second jam to gain a come-from-behind lead in the second, thanks to a stellar effort by her blockers to keep Belle jammer The Bitter End in the pack. TactiGal (six jams, three leads (50%)) followed with yet another lead on the third jam, and Hop Devil finished Ohio’s brief period of dominance by fighting off a forearm penalty to gain the lead in the fourth jam.
I say “brief period” because the four jams combined netted a total of four points for Gang Green, and they were the last points Ohio would get for another six jams. The rest of the first half was all Warning Belles.
The trouble started in the fifth jam, when jammer Nicold N Deadly was called for a cut while in the pack. She was called back to the track after the officials determined that the skater she had supposedly cut had actually gone out of bounds, but the damage had already been done; Naptown’s Honey Badger scored twelve points on what amounted to a power jam. The Belle defense stymied Ohio the rest of the way, killing a power jam in the seventh without allowing a point and keeping ahead of Ohio’s jammers on the rare occasions Gang Green won the lead. Naptown owned a 15-6 advantage in jams led and held a comfortable 106-22 lead at the half.
Ohio regrouped at halftime and were able to downgrade the Naptown scoring from “flash flood” to “brisk stream.” Gang Green’s offense was resurrected, and the second half was an entertaining, back-and-forth ramble. The Belles pushed their lead over 100 early in the half, but Gang Green seemed to grow stronger as the day went on. If the day had been extended just another few minutes, the comeback may have been complete.
Sarah Bruce, who won five leads in her seven jams (71%), jump-started the scoring with an eight-point power jam in the third, added another nine points after fighting off a low block in the eleventh, and had a ten-point power jam in the nineteenth. Hop Devil accrued fourteen points on a power jam in the seventeenth, and Hope Dela Vega gained the lead that got Ohio back to 100 points, 79-179, with four minutes left in the bout. Bruce gave Gang Green their final points after gaining the lead in the twenty-third. Ohio’s late surge pulled them back under 100 points, but it was much too late for real damage. Naptown’s Lysis 2 Kill gained the lead on the final jam to hand Gang Green their second loss of the season, 88-185.
Gang Green
V0LT Elektra Magneto | 16 Garden of Beatin | 33 Hop Devil | 75 Hope Dela Vega | 411 Lil Spitfire | 2011 Nicold N Deadly | 38 Pistol Whippin Wendy | 314 Pi-Thon | 7 Quiet Storm | 138 Sarah Bruce | C4 Tactigal | 19 Texas Chainsaw Sasskicker | 15 Zinnia Zombie
Warning Belles
23 April Bloodgate | 109 Cherry unCordial | 16 CrashN2U | 99 Deadie Page | 33 Honey Badger | 594 Jade Neutrinos | 1111 Kimmie S’More | 70 Lysis 2 Kill | 177 Penn Tupanga | 762 Sock’emz Razor | 6 Sweet | 2912 The Bitter End | 2911 Audracity | 32 CacaFuego
Written by Darth Brooks. Contributions by Sweet Maully.
Photos courtesy of Tom Klubens.
