Steel is stronger that Silicone? Who knew?
But if there was ever any doubt, the Durango Roller Girls’ Team Steel put it rest Saturday night at Chapman Hill, trouncing Team Silicone in an intrasquad bout that marked the club’s first home showing of the season.
Steel muscled its way to a heavy 262-93 victory.
Or maybe it was the other way around.
Ask Vanessa “Bad Czech Bo-Hotty” Bohaty, who put the “bad” ... well, mostly in the penalty box. Until she was ejected late in the bout for too many, that is.
“Yes, it’s not a first unfortunately,” Bohaty said, laughing and nodding to her high school basketball experience. “I’m actually notorious for having too many elbows.”
But just two of them Saturday, where technical penalties of all stripes did her and her teammates in.
“Our penalties killed us,” Bohaty said.
She was just one of a bonanza of Team Silicone skaters – most of them, actually – who found themselves spending plenty of time in the box Saturday night, and that led to a plethora of power jams that let Steel run away in a hurry.
Silicone took its lone lead of the night just minutes into the bout, the girls in pink overtaking the girls in gray at 10-7, then improving to 14-7 on a grand slam after their jammer lapped the entire field.
That’s when penalties punctured the Silicone balloons.
On a power jam, Steel’s Kill Eatcha went round and round and round some more as Silicone after Silicone – Bohaty among them, of course – sat and sat and sat some more in the penalty box.
By the end of Kill Eatcha’s romp, Steel led 46-14.
Silicone tried to bounce back with a couple quick grand slams of its own, rebounding as close as 46-37, but another power jam did Silicone in.
With about 10 minutes to go in the first 30-minute half, Steel pounded Silicone with a round of grand slams, as Steel’s slippery jammers slid through Silicone’s depleted blockers to the tune of 75 points, most of them unanswered.
What started as a manageable 54-41 deficit exploded into a 129-54 rout by halftime, and it only would get worse.
For stretches in the second half, Silicone found itself with just one or two pink-shirted players facing down a full-strength Steel squad. They even got hit with back-to-back jammer penalties midway through the second half, leaving them unable to score.
“To be honest, they were much more penalty prone,” said Cassie “Raven Evergore” Beck, who travelled from Denver to compete and had some slick grand slams of her own for Steel. “A few power jams that completely skyrocketed our score.”
It didn’t stop Silicone from getting in their hits. Or pleasing the nearly full-capacity crowd.
And Beck said that was made easier with the smaller venue – something she’s missed skating in big-time Denver and Seattle.
“I love these smaller town bouts,” Beck said. “I miss the smaller town bouts.”
And with the close-proximity crowd pushed right up to the edge of the concrete rink, everyone got in on the cheering and everyone gets to see the organic carnage.
Beck took an elbow to the eye that left her with blood on her face, hand and leg until the eyebrow cut was bandaged up.
She’ll only be upset if it doesn’t look worse later.
“I’m hoping for a black eye. I’ve never had one,” Beck said. “I’m hoping for my battle wound.”
Bohaty, who’s been skating for a year, laid a few nasty hits of her own – legal ones, mostly – and said afterward that these sort of intrasquad bouts are fun, blowouts notwithstanding.
Plus, she said, they were good experience for the Durango Roller Girls’ two fresh-meat skaters – “Tyrannosaurus Bex” and “Sharifa the Shredder” – and a good recruiting tool for the club, which is always looking for new girls.
“Tyrannosaurus Bex” in particular looked spry Saturday, maneuvering into the lead jammer position on a few occasion to score Silicone points.
“I think our fresh meat are improving exponentially,” Bohaty said.
“We need these fresh players who aren’t afraid to get out there and try it. ... Our fresh meat are so spirited,” she said.
Indeed:
“Spectacular. The community made a great showing. ... It is the embodiment of female glory,” said Becky “Tyrannosaurus Bex” Briggs, a Durango lawyer.
“Those girls are committed to the culture of excellence. And so is the law office of Becky Briggs.”
Spirited, indeed.
jsojourner@durangoherald.com
