(ST. PETERS, MO) The primary travel squad of the St. Chux Derby Chix has faced adversity throughout the 2015 season within the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).
Numerous holes to its starting line-up, due to injuries, and the hard push by comparable opponents on its ledger has made the St. Charles County-based rollers fight tooth-and-nail every time they have taken to the flat track.
Such was the case again Saturday night at Matteson Square Garden as St. Chux, ranked #47 internationally by the WFTDA, fell to #57 Oklahoma Victory Dolls, 197-150.
The 47-point loss dropped the Pack In Black’s record to 2-7 as it finished its final game prior to the governing body’s next release of calculated rankings, set for early July, and its reveal of playoff-eligible leagues particpating. St. Chux, currently classified as Division 2, earmarked for the leagues ranked 41-60, will know its potential post-season fate shortly.
Reflections on the Saturday setback saw a tale of two halves. St. Chux struggled early, went scoreless in the last seven minutes of the first period and surrendered a 78-point lead at intermission
Conversely, they rebounded nicely in the second period, got its respective game back in gear and outscored OKVD, 102-73.
“I think the first half was a little bit rough,” assessed SCDC captain Pixie Dust-ruction afterwards. “We were trying to figure them and their game out. Once we did that, we closed the gap. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to close it all the way and pull out the win, but I think we really did scare them in the second half.”
Trailing 12-0 after two jams, SCDC A-team newcomer Sugar Shock collected a 10-5 jam at the 25:15 mark to cut the gap to seven, 17-10.
Oklahoma Victory then launched a six-jam, 34-0 rally. Jammers Czech 1-2 and T. Pain utilized 14 and 13 point strikes, respectively, during the sprint and the visitors sported a 54-13 lead with 16:15 left in the period.
That momentum, aided by St. Chux penalties, continued for the remainder of the half. With Czech 1-2’s 15-3 power jam with 7:55 remaining, the Oklahomans pushed the score to 91-48. Meanwhile, OKVD’s defense went into lock down mode, holding SCDC to zero points for the remainder of the frame.
The 35-0 late period stretch gave Oklahoma Victory a 126-48 lead halftime.
In the opening minutes of the second, the shutout continued as Oklahoma collected 22 straight and extended the score to 148-48 with 27:30 left in the game.
To its credit, St. Chux refused to wave the white flag and methodically chipped away at the deficit. SCDC blocking, paced by the aforementioned Dust-ruction, Whip L’Ash, Tara Eyes, Lisa Frank-N-Stein, Big Red, Blue Collar Brawler, Zombie Firebomb, Slaughterhaus and Zo D. Ax, set the tone by building the walls to help the St. Chux jammers and, simultaneously, draw a plethora of penalties on the opposition.
Whip L’Ash collected a non-lead 22-2 jam with 25:40 remaining to cut OKVD’s lead to 80 points, 150-70.
Then trailing 159-78 with 22:00 left, the Pack In Black went on a 16-0 rally over three rotations. An eight-point strike from Jedi Knight-N-Gale was followed by back-to-back four pointers from GI Jamie and Shoxx. The sprint made the score 159-94 with 19:30 left.
Oklahoma Victory staved the charge with crucial points collected down the stretch. Jammer E-Bomb notched nine with 9:00 left to maintain the 55-point differential, 179-124. St. Chux made a valiant effort late but could not close the gap and the visitors from the Sooner State snatched the 197-150 win to improve to 3-3 on the season and potentially snag a WFTDA Division 2 post-season berth.
Knight-N-Gale paced St. Chux scoring with 81 points, followed by Jamie’s 23.
Despite the setback, SCDC took away positives from the evening. The Pack in Black next plays #52 Demolition City in Evansville, Indiana on July 25 and in preparation, SCDC would like to use Saturday’s second half push to its advantage.
“We thought that we played really well in the second period, so we’ll just focus on that,” said Dust-ruction. “We’ll just keep practicing on what we were doing well, adapting to what another teams are doing. We’ll continue to figure that out. We’ve face a lot of adversity this year, so I’m very proud of everybody for pulling together, doing what they could and just doing their best.”
UNOFFICIAL SCORING
ST. CHUX DERBY CHIX (150): Jedi Knight-N-Gale 81, GI Jamie 23, Whip L’Ash 23, Sugar Shock 20, Tara Eyes 3.
In the interleague b-team battle that followed, SCDC’s Hell’s Belles collected its first victory of the season with a 194-160 victory over OKVD’s Battle Squad.
For more information on the St. Chux Derby Chix, go to stchuxderbychix.com.
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 Arch City 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.
