(BALLWIN, MO) When the Arch Rival Roller Girls took residence at Midwest Sport Hockey in April 2011, little did anyone project that its primary travel squad would be undefeated on home turf during a lengthy period of time.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
Over four years later, a goose egg still remains on the side of the ledger reserved for losses.
Propelled by a 56-0 first period rally, St. Louis, ranked #14 internationally by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), notched a 287-40 victory over the Naptown Tornado Sirens Saturday night and kept its undefeated streak at Queeny Park (18-0) intact.
The 247-point victory over the Indianapolis-based counterpart was WFTDA non-sanctioned, meaning that the result did not apply to its current 11-0 sanctioned record nor its future calculated ranking and inevitable post-season seed in a few weeks.
Nonetheless, Saturday’s match-up for Arch Rival proved beneficial for priming the team for future flat-track battles and ensuing playoff activity.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
“We still played this game as if it was the most important game of the season,” said St. Louis pivot Mayor Francis Slayer afterwards. “We played them earlier this year and won (316-101), so our goal was to keep their points lower than last time. We didn’t put as many points on the board this time, but we held them to less than half the points that they scored against us earlier, so this was a success.”
Arch Rival’s recent successful formula of a starting rotation of five jammers and nine blockers was put into effect again and it did not take long for the locals the sprint out to an early lead.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
A 28-0 run over the first six jams, accented by Harmony Killerbruise’s 10-point strike five minutes in, gave Arch Rival a 28-0 lead at the 23:15 mark.
After Naptown busted the shut-out with Maiden America’s four-point jam on the next rotation to make the score 28-4, St. Louis scored 56 points uncontested. Mighty Mighty Boston started the rally with a 10-pointer tallied with 19:40 left in the period to stretch St. Louis’ lead to 38-4. She later added eight in jam 14 that pushed the score at that moment to 55-4.
Meanwhile, Arch Rival’s blocking set-up, featuring the aforementioned Slayer alongside Party Foul, Shimmy Hoffa, Jamheiser Bush, Emily Rinehart, Chewblocka, Cloak N’ DragHer, Kayla Seiber and The Ginger Assassin, caused Naptown to continuously commit penalties.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
This became pivotal with 8:00 left in the period. A track cut called on Naptown’s jammer resulted in a St. Louis power jam, anchored by Killerbruise. A 29-point thumper ensued and completed the 56-0 stretch run that pushed Arch Rival’s lead to 84-4 with 6:15 remaining in the half.
ARRG posted a 143-16 lead at intermission following Bricktator’s 15-point, period-ending jam.
Another 29-point power jam from Killerbruise in the second period’s second jam widened St. Louis’ lead to 174-16 at the 26:30 mark.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
Arch Rival broke the 200-point barrier with Bricktator’s nine point jam with 18:20 left in the game that pushed the score to 208-16. The strike also punctuated a 65-0 second period rally by St. Louis.
Power jams also widened the final differential as Brickyard notched an 18-pointer with under 10:00 left and Annie Swanson collected 19 on the game’s final rotation.
St. Louis outscored Naptown, 143-24, in the second period to pick up the 287-40 non-sanctioned win. Killerbruise paced Arch Rival scoring with 120 points, followed by Brickyard’s 60.
In short, all components tested Saturday succeeded. Arch Rival next plays at Midwest Sport Hockey on Saturday, August 1 against #17 Detroit as it seeks to keep both its unblemished 11-0 sanctioned mark this season and its historical Queeny Park record perfect.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
The team will also know its post-season fate very shortly as the WFTDA will be releasing its final pre-tournament calculated rankings, which will determine playoff seeds and locations for those international leagues that qualify. Arch Rival is currently classified as Division 1, earmarked for the Top 40 leagues.
Slayer and her St. Louis sistren look forward to making a statement in the highly-competitive international tournament.
“We have all the right tools and everybody is dedicated,” assessed Slayer. “We have our eyes on a common goal. Everyone feels that this is the year for us to do it. We have everything we need to get to where we want to go.”
UNOFFICIAL SCORING
ARCH RIVAL (287) Harmony Killerbruise 120, Brickyard 60, Bricktator 46, Mighty Mighty Boston 33, Annie Swanson 31.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
In the “B-team” game that followed, ARRG’s Saint Lunachix improved to 3-1 on the season with 175-150 victory over Naptown’s Warning Belles.
For more information on the Arch Rival Roller Girls, go to www.archrivalrollergirls.com.
