Saturday, January 19th brought all the Rose City home teams back to Memorial Coliseum to battle it out in front of their fans, family, and some members of the Timbers Army. (Hi Timbers Army. Did you have an enjoyable time? Nice flags!) The first games of the Rose City Rollers’ home team season pitted the Guns N Rollers against the Heartless Heathers, and then the Break Neck Betties against the High Rollers.
Guns N Rollers 182, Heartless Heathers 156
This game looked a little lopsided at first, with the Heartless Heathers’ team defense holding GNR scoreless for the first five jams.
GNR tries to slow down Scratcher. Photo by Regularman.
In the end, though, like we’ve seen before, Scald Eagle racked up a lot of points fast when it was needed. Her 30 points in the 37th jam of the night gave GNR the lead, and her subsequent 30-point jam (yes, there were two in the last ten jams of the game) put the score at 184-145 in GNR’s favor with just a few minutes to go.
Ivana Thrasher is looking like a standout in the early part of the season. The latest transfer skater from Rainy City picked up 49 points for GNR. Fun fact: Mel Mangles, Napalm Beth, and JK Rolling also transferred from Rainy City. They must grow ‘em tough there.
High Rollers 212, Break Neck Betties 156
Don’t get me wrong – all of these teams want to win every game they play. But after facing off the last two years at Championships, the High Rollers and Betties REALLY want to beat each other. Badly. If it seemed like there were a lot of penalties in this game, there were – but it was exactly the same number of penalty minutes as the 2012 season opener game between these two. Things can get a little intense.
The early going between HRMF and the Betties was something like the game earlier in the evening. The Betties fell behind early, but caught up to get a close lead of 85-81 at halftime.
A wall of green stymies DK. Photo by Skippy Steve.
Soon after halftime, Napoleon Blownapart changed the momentum for the team in green, taking advantage of Bettie penalties for a 35-point jam. Though the Betties would draw close again, a 24-point jam score for Feliz Brutality in the final minutes put the game out of reach for the 2012 champions.
It’s also important to note that during this game, though I may have been grumpy in parts due to the Betties not completely annihilating their opponents (I’m biased due to my first-hand knowledge that the Betties are the best and most attractive team ever assembled), my husband caught a t-shirt shot from a t-shirt cannon. Is there any greater accomplishment in sports spectatorship? Probably hitting a half-court shot for a bunch of money would be better, but still.
Everyone wants a t-shirt! Photo by Regularman
One more important game note: Can we talk about how confusing it is now that Mutch Mayhem lightened her hair? Like there weren’t enough blonde-ponytailed jammers for the Betties.
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Did you all have a nice time? I sure did. Thank you to all the volunteers and skaters who work so hard, and to all the fans who came out to enjoy it. Thank you to my husband too for standing in line to buy me a soft pretzel. That was delicious.
If you weren’t able to come in person, or if you want to re-live the magic, check out the full game videos on YouTube.
Our next games are the weekend of February 22-24 at the Hangar at Oaks Park. Tickets make a great Valentine’s Day present for those of you with significant others who like fun.
Bouts at the hangar do sell out, sometimes a week or two ahead of time, so don’t dilly-dally.
See you there!
