LVRG vs. Salisbury All-Stars Bout Wrap Up 8/24/13

This past weekend, the Salisbury Roller Girls’ All-Stars traveled to Schnecksville to play the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls’ (LVRG) Hissy Fits.  According to flattrackstats.com, LVRG was given a heavy advantage to win over Salisbury.

The first 2 or 3 jams seemed like typical game play with no real established dominate team. However, Salisbury was awarded a power jam (this is when the opposing jammer is sent to the penalty box) which resulted in an advantage for their All-Stars. Not only did Salisbury capitalize on their power jam over two jam periods, but Lehigh got into penalty trouble with their blockers, giving Salisbury an even larger advantage. The referees were spot on calling multiple penalties on Lehigh. This gave LVRG almost no defense left on the track to defend against Salisbury.  In the first half alone, LVRG spent 24 minutes in the penalty box as compared to Salisbury’s 16 minutes.  By the end of Salisbury’s power jam flurry, they were up by 44 points in the first 10 minutes of the game.

As game play continued, lead jammer status was held evenly by both teams. Each team seemed to hold the strategy of gaining lead jammer status and then calling off the jam strategically to gain one or two points over their opponent. Before the end of the first half, the Hissy Fits, down by about 40 points, were awarded their first power jam of the evening.  Lehigh was gaining points in that jam and right as the opposing jammer was standing to return to game play, LVRG performed a star pass from the Jammer to LVRG’s Pivot.  In roller derby, when the Jammer passes her helmet panty (the star) to the Pivot, the Pivot becomes the Jammer, loses any lead Jammer abilities and can now earn points like a Jammer. However, upon gaining the star, LVRG’s Pivot, now the Jammer, committed a penalty and immediately went to the penalty box. This gave the Salisbury All-Stars and immediate power jam. Unfortunately when the LVRG Jammer returned from the penalty box, she committed 2 more additional penalties in a row, giving Salisbury 3 straight power jams. The score at the end of the first half was 117-41 favoring Salisbury.

With a hardy pep talk at half time and an adjustment to the LVRG line ups, the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls attacked the second half with a vengeance.  Every opportunity for lead jammer status was taken and Lehigh slowly gained a point at a time, chipping away at their deficit.  LVRG shut out Salisbury for 12 jams in a row and seemed to be on a great come back, as they refused to allow Salisbury more than a point or two each jam.  Both teams kept their penalties down in the second half, and LVRG took lead jammer status 59% of the time.  LVRG was the team in control in the second half, outscoring Salisbury 91 points to 51 points, but it was not enough to make up for the large deficit Lehigh experienced in the first half of game play.  The final score was 168-132, giving the win to the Salisbury All-Stars.

	1st Half	2nd Half	Total
Total Jams	25	27	52
LVRG Lead	14	16	30
Salisbury Lead	11	11	22
LVRG Power Jams	1	3	4
Salisbury Power Jams	4	3	7
LVRG Penalties	24	14	38
Salisbury Penalties	16	18	34
LVRG Score	41	91	132
Salisbury Score	117	51	168

Come watch when LVRG’s Special Vixens Unit takes on Iron Mountain on September 7^th.

Find us online at http://www.lehighvalleyrollergirls.com

All functions will be held at the Independence Family Fun Center, 4345 Independence Dr, Schnecksville, PA.

Thank you to all of the friends, family and volunteers that make this team so special.