So last weekend’s Kansas City Roller Warriors bout on February 2… were you there?
Did you see that?
It was the biggest crowd at Memorial Hall in quite some time, due in part to the Girl Scouts of NE Kansas/NW Missouri and in part to the Kansas City Junior Warriors and their families. That kind of crowd engagement is fuel for the derby fire, electrifying as it was, and our hope is that we can keep that kind of energy going the entire season.
The first bout of the night saw the Knockouts grab up another victory, this one against a Victory Vixens team that hasn’t notched a win yet in 2019, but shouldn’t be taken lightly. They gave the Dorothys quite a run last month, and this month, they only lost by 29 points, final score 289-260, which isn’t a lot under this rule set.
The Knockouts probably are the team to beat again this season, but the Vixens are clearly one of the most dangerous teams on the track in KC. We’ll be keeping an eye on them, and you should too.
The Juniors wowed the crowd with their first appearance of the season in an exhibition scrimmage, and then the Black Eye Susans faced off against a Dreadnought Dorothys team no one thought could drop this game.
Except… that they did.
The Dorothys held at least a slim lead most of the game — they were up 77-65 at halftime — but like the Vixens, the Susans just kept finding ways to fight back.
Unfortunately, a good portion of the crowd left at halftime, presumably since the night was running long due to the Juniors’ scrimmage, and there were so many kiddos in attendance that night.
Let me tell you, they missed out.
With only 10 seconds left on the game clock, the Dorothys led 129-117 as (what everyone assumed would be) the last jam of the game commenced. As the game clock ran out, a Susans blocker clobbered the Dorothys jammer at the far apex, sending her down hard and triggering an injury time out.
Thankfully, the jammer was all right and left the track on her own. Under WFTDA rules, though, if a jam is called off at the discretion of an official — an injury time out, for instance — and there are fewer than 30 seconds left on the game clock, an additional jam may be run at the discretion of the head referee.
And that is what happened. By now, the Dorothys’ lead was down to three, and the Susans had one last opportunity to take home the win.
The crowd went insane as the Susans’ jammer took lead, fought halfway through the pack, and passed the star to the pivot, who barreled through for four points and called off the jam. The Black Eye Susans straight-up shoplifted the win from the Dreadnought Dorothys by a final score of 132-131 as the remaining crowd at Memorial Hall roared its approval.
I’m telling you… those Dorothys are something else, and the tenacity on the part of the Susans was unmatched Saturday night. If there was ever any doubt that this is one of the greatest shows in Kansas City, well, it’s gone now.
Current Standings
Knockouts 2-0
Dreadnought Dorothys 1-1
Black Eye Susans 1-1
Victory Vixens 0-2
The Kansas City Roller Warriors‘ next event is on March 2. We’ll have photos from last weekend’s bout published as soon as we can. Keep an eye on our Smugmug album, and we’ll probably post links here too.