Saturday, August 18, 2007

Boston-Detroit bout recap with more juicy details!

This oh so exciting recap of yesterday's bout comes from Have Derby Will Travel:
(t9) Detroit 104, (t8) Boston 99 (OT)

In a nearly perfectly matched bout that featured numerous lead changes and a literally last-second effort to tie the bout in the final instants of regulation, the 9th-seeded Detroit Derby Girls needed overtime to squeak past the 8th-seeded Boston Massacre, 104 to 99.

From the beginning of this bout, it was clear that it'd be a tight contest -- Boston's Sarah Doom gave the Massacre a quick 4-0 lead with a win over Rock Candy, but the lead immediately switched hands when Racer McChaseher went 9-0 over Maura Buse. Detroit was then clinging to a small lead for the rest of the period. On Jam 5, Boston's Claire D. Way momentarily tied it up at 20 by going 4-0 over Detroit's Killbox, but two jams later, Detroit's Rock Candy got two grand slams over Maura Buse to give Detroit their biggest lead of the bout at 32-22. Boston kept chipping away at that lead, though, and the period ended with Detroit just 4 points ahead of the Massacre, 36 to 32.

Detroit would only be able to hold on to their lead for the first two jams of the second period, and then Boston's Maura Buse tied it up at 44 with a 8-0 jam over Summers Eve-L. With Summers stuck in the box to start the next jam, Boston team captain Sarah Doom then dropped two grand slams on Detroit for a 10-0 jam that gave Boston their biggest lead of the bout at 54-44. At that point Detroit seemed to switch strategies, relying almost exclusively on Racer McChaseher and Cookie Rumble at the jammer line for the rest of the period. It paid off, with Detroit grabbing lead jammer on 4 out of the last 6 jams of the period and closing to within just one point at 63-62 before Boston's Sarah Doom gave the Massacre a little bit of daylight with a 5-0 jam over Cookie Rumble to close the half, putting Boston up 68-62.

Boston managed to fight off the Detroit attack through the majority of the third period. Detroit managed to momentarily grab a one-point lead with about 13 minutes to go at 78-77, but Sarah Doom spearheaded a 14-5 Boston run that made the score Boston 92, Detroit 83 with about 6 minutes left to play. However, that was when Massacre's jammer Sarah Doom took an unfortunately timed trip to the penalty box and Detroit's Honey Suckit navigated her way through a very strung-out pack to pick up 11 points (two of them grand slams on Doom), giving Detroit the slimmest of leads at 93-92. Detroit's Racer McChaseher followed that up with a 2-1 win over Maura Buse, which moved the score to Detroit 95, Boston 93 with about three minutes left on the clock. With the next two jams ending 0-0 as Detroit lead jammers protected the lead, it came down to Boston's Sarah Doom against Detroit's Racer McChaseher on the jam line with only about a minute left to play and only two points separating the teams. It was Detroit's Racer McChaseher who got off the line first and looked ready to break the pack and get a win-sealing lead jammer call, but she picked up a fourth minor for cutting track just as she exited on her opening pass, earning a trip to the penalty box and driving an already uproarious crowd into a genuine frenzy. With Sarah Doom jamming unopposed, the only question was whether she could begin scoring before time expired, and as the announcers counted down the remaining ticks on the clock, Doom finally reached the pack, passed one blocker legally, passed another out of bounds, and tumbled past another just as time expired -- earning 2 points and sending the game into overtime.

In the overtime jam, it was Maura Buse who lined up unopposed for Boston, but Racer McChaseher's penalty was almost over, and Racer exploded out of the penalty box to break the pack before Maura could. The Detroit defense made a stalwart stand, allowing Racer to lap Maura, and at the end of the full two minutes, Racer had scored 9 points to Maura's 4, giving Detroit a dramatic win in what was easily the most thrilling bout of the opening day.

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