(BALLWIN, MO) St. Louis-based GateKeepers Roller Derby took a stride in its quest of its first-ever title in the Men’s Roller Derby Association (MRDA) with a convincing 229-85 quarterfinal victory over Bridgetown Menace Saturday at “River City Rumble,” the MRDA 2015 Championship tournament being held this weekend at Midwest Sport Hockey in Queeny Park.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
St. Louis, the ten-team tourney’s second seed, was propelled by a hard-charging first period, a bone-breaking defensive output in the second. The 114-point victory advances the GateKeepers (12-1) to a semifinal meeting with third-seeded New York Sunday morning at 9 a.m.
The final score might appear lopsided but Bridgetown, the tourney’s seventh seed, gave the locals fits early and sported a 13-0 lead after three jams.
“It seems like every time we play them, they always lead to begin with,” said GateKeeper jammer Shane Bower of the Menace. “We just had to find our sensor a bit and then really lock in our play. They were throwing some stuff at us, we took a few jams to get used to it and then we wrapped our strategies around it.”
Bridgetown’s aforementioned baker’s dozen-point launch in the quarterfinal came via back-to-back four-pointers from Shreddy Mercury and ILLNino and was concluded by Don Juan’s grand slam in jam 3.
St. Louis re-focused and broke the goose egg on the next rotation as Screecharound notched a pair of points to narrow the score to 13-2 with 26:00 left in the first. This launched a 26-0 run as Magnum P.I.M.P. collected four in jam 5 to whittle the lead to 13-6.
Then the GateKeepers capitalized on their first power jam of the contest and flipped the scoreboard as Bower notched a 20-pointer that gave St. Louis a 26-13 lead with 22:40 left in the period.
GKRD kept the surge alive as Debaucherous Prime hit a 9-3 jam in the seventh rotation which pushed St. Louis’ advantage to 35-16 with 20:15 left in the frame.
After the Menace notched three to get back into the scoring ledger, the GateKeepers scored 13 uncontested over the next three rotations. Powered by the blocking of Bled Zeppelin, Percy Controll, Kyle Stark, Spin Diesel, The Saint, Inquadable Hulk, Gnat King Kill, Monster Jam and Uttendorf, St. Louis increased its lead to 48-19 with 16:05 left in the period.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
Another scoring streak helped the locals’ cause and highlighted by Screecharound’s seven-pointer scored with 11:00 left, St. Louis’ lead blossomed to 61-23.
The traction remained for the rest of the period. Bower’s 13-6 jam with 3:05 left pushed the GateKeepers’ lead to 90-33. St. Louis put the exclamation point at the end of the period with David Metcalfe’s three-pointer that gave GKRD a 99-37 lead at intermission.
The momentum carried over to the second as St. Louis’ P.I.M.P. collected a 13-point power jam on the opening rotation that extended the score to 112-37. Prime scored the same amount two jams later to push the GateKeeper lead to 128-51.
St. Louis continued the onslaught as Bower’s eight-point strike with 21:00 left pushed the advantage to 140-54. The GateKeepers saved its collective defensive best with a 65-0 rally that spanned nine jams. When the dust settled after the streak, the second seed possessed a 205-55 lead with 6:45 left.
Photo Credit: Bob Dunnell
St. Louis outscored Bridgetown in the second period, 130-48, to pick up the 229-85 quarterfinal win and the Sunday semifinal meeting with New York.
“New York is going to be tough, for sure,” said Bower, who finished with 62 points. “I expect it to be a very tough game…but I really don’t know what to expect. We’ll just see when we get there.”
If St. Louis wins that semifinal contest, it advances to the MRDA Championship game set for 7 p.m while a setback drops them to the 5 p.m. third place game. Bower and his teammates would prefer the former and keeps the quest for a first-ever MRDA title intact.
“We are very proud of what we’ve done this season ,” he said. “Really, if we play our best game and don’t win a Cup (Sunday), we’re still going to be proud. The only way it will be disappointing is if we play below ourselves. But yeah, we really want that Cup.”
INDIVIDUAL SCORING
ST. LOUIS GATEKEEPERS (229): Debaucherous Prime 69, Shane Bower 62, Screecharound 41, Magnum P.I.M.P. 31, David Metcalfe 22.
Full skater stats for the game can be viewed at THIS LINK.
In other quarterfinal action from Day One of “River City Rumble,” top-seeded Your Mom Men’s Derby, the MRDA three-time defending champion, powered to a 252-118 victory over eighth-seeded Magic City to earn a semifinal berth.
Third-seeded New York won its quarterfinal match over sixth-seeded Southern Discomfort, 133-128, on the game’s final jam and fourth-seeded Texas topped fifth-seeded Puget Sound, 200-113.
In the early quarterfinal play-in games, seventh-seeded topped tenth-seeded Twin Cities, 316-33, and eighth-seeded Magic City edged ninth-seeded San Diego 209-181.
Live stream coverage on Sunday can be seen online at THIS LINK.
RIVER CITY RUMBLE SUNDAY SCHEDULE
SEMIFINALS
9 AM – (2) STL GATEKEEPERS VS. (3) New York
11 AM – (1) Your Mom Men’s Derby vs. (4) Texas
CONSOLATION
1 PM – (9) San Diego vs. (10) Twin Cities
3 PM – (5) Puget Sound vs. (6) Southern Discomfort
THIRD PLACE GAME
5 PM – St. Louis/New York loser vs. Your Mom/Texas loser
MRDA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
7 PM – St. Louis/New York winner vs. Your Mom/Texas winner
