#9 Philly Upsets #7 Windy City, 92-76

by Justice Feelgood Mashall - derbynewsnetwork.com
 

June 26, 2008 FEASTERVILLE, PA -- #9 Philly did their home fans proud on the opening night of the ECE. After opening up a big lead over #7 Windy City in the first half of their bout, they remained calm when the Chicago girls rallied big in the second, and regained their first-half form to score a solid 92-76 upset victory.

Philly jumped all over Windy City from the opening jam, with Philly jammer Mo Pain scampering for a 12-0 over Windy's Yvette YourMaker that put the visitors on their heels immediately. Windy City's Eva Dead managed to take lead over Philly's Persephone on the second jam, but Shenita Stretcher decked Eva with a huge shoulder block during her scoring pass, inspiring Eva to call it a little earlier than she might have liked at 3-0.

Mo Pain, back on the line for jam 3, put up a 6-0 and suddenly Windy City was looking at a 18-3 deficit that they couldn't have been expecting. While Windy managed to close the gap to 20-14 with 17:40 to play in the half, they got a one-two punch that nearly put the game out of reach at that point -- Philly's Persephone lapped Windy's Athena DeCrime for a 5-0, and then the swift Mo Pain was able to exploit a Yvette YourMaker trip to the box with a huge 15-0 that made the score Philly 40, Windy City 14.

Windy City did manage to shave some points off the Philly lead by halftime, with particularly big help from a 9-1 jam for Windy's Varla Vendetta over a penalized Mo Pain, but when the half closed at Philly 56, Windy City 35, it looked like the home team had all the momentum.

In the first half, Windy City had had troubles setting up the front-of-pack wall defense that had worked so well for them in last year's Eastern Regionals, and it looked like they were particularly missing Megan Formor and Malice in Chains, tall blockers who were a big part of that defense. But in the first 16 minutes of the second half, Windy City's defense finally clicked on. After a 7-7 jam that opened the half, Windy City managed to shut out Philly for 12 straight minutes over 8 jams, repeatedly picking up small margin wins that whittled away the Philly lead to nothing.

The climax of the Windy City rally came when Kola Loka, jamming for Windy City, drew an awed reaction from the crowd by landing a daring apex jump over a downed Philly skater -- and then, nearly out of control and falling backwards, managed to just barely grab an arm whip from her pivot that allowed her to regain her balance, claim lead jammer, and eventually put up a 4-0 spot over Gloria Grindem that put Windy City for the first time in the bout, 68-64, with about 15 minutes on the clock.

Unfortunately for the visitors, that would be the only time they would lead. Their big 26-0 run would be answered by Philly in surprisingly similar style. Mo Pain tied it up again on the next jam with her own 4-0, and then Windy City got a tough break when their jammer Kola Loka took two trips to the penalty box on the same jam. Teflon Donna got an 8-0 on that jam, but even though the next WCR pack, led by Blossom Bruiso, managed to kill the remainder of Kola Loka's penalty with only 4 points for Mo Pain, Philly had moved their advantage up to 80-68.

After a lengthy 0-0 battle between Kola Loka and Persephone, Mo Pain got a critical grand slam 5-0 over Athena DeCrime that made the score 85-68 with only 6 minutes left on the clock. Windy City, realizing they were on the ropes, tried to ride their ace jammer Kola Loka, jamming her three times in a row -- but the Philly packs knew all they had to do for the win was keep the margins small. The score from all three of Kola's jams added up to a measly Windy City 4, Philly 3, and after a final 4-4 between Eva Dead and Mo Pain, Philly had the upset in hand at 92-76.