All-Stars Squeak Out a Victory on Feb 9

By Tiki TimeBomb, photos by Bob Ayers

If you watched one bout since September, we hope it was the Terminal City All-Stars vs. the Jet City Bombers.

On February 9th, the teams faced off at Surrey’s Central City Arena. Everett, WA’s Jet City Bombers finished last season ranked 10th in the WFTDA’s Western Region; Terminal City ranked 12th. The two teams look evenly matched on paper, but they differ in styles. Jet City is known for their aggressive, physical game, and Terminal City for their finesse and strategy. With the new WFTDA rule set and the change of several former minor penalties to majors, the ability to capitalize on a power jam is now more crucial than ever. Saturday night was definitely evidence of why.

The Bombers were all in from the first whistle. Veteran jammer Ivana Hercha packed on 13 points while the All-Stars’ jammer served a penalty. The All Stars’ Bobbi Barbarich (fka Beretta Lynch) squeezed two points out of her first jam, and pint-sized powerhouse Evada Péron racked up another 10 while her team’s blockers shut down the Bombers’ jammer in the pack. A 15-point power jam by Kim Janna put the All-Stars in the lead, followed quickly by an even bigger 23-point power jam from Barbarich that pushed the score to a 47-14 advantage for the All-Stars.

Barbarich negotiates with a Jet City blocker.

The All-Stars' momentum seemed to be building, with impressive offensive picks by Sophie Robinson (fka Amazombie), and solid defense by Lisa Suggit (fka Rollergirl) and new member Scarlett Bloodbath. But the Bombers held their own, and kept the All-Stars from building on that lead. The score was 98-68 at halftime, and neither team was showing signs of weakness.

The Bombers kept it tight going into the second period, with strong defensive plays by Marilyn Gun-Hoe and Tabula Rasa playing a key part chipping away at the All-Stars lead. Pippy Longstalker was a huge standout, switching effortlessly from jamming to blocking all night. The All-Stars’ blockers ran into penalty trouble, and the Bombers’ jammers took advantage of having fewer opponents in their way. With 15 minutes left, the All-Stars’ lead had shrunk to 110-101. And with just six minutes on the clock, Nasty Nikki Nightstick rocketed through a sizeable power jam, catapulting the Bombers into the lead 129 to the All-Stars’ 126.

Blocker Megan Griffith slows down the Jet City jammer

The final minutes of the game felt like an eternity to the fans packed into Central City. The Bombers added another 17 points while the All-Stars fought to contain them. The tables turned once again with another power jam for Kim Janna, pushing the All-Stars up to 138 with the Bombers holding on at 146 and just 1:30 left on the period clock. As the last jam started, with no blockers in the box and the entire building holding its breath, Barbarich blasted through the pack securing lead jammer status for the All-Stars. Suggitt, Flower Plow’her, Robinson, and Scarlett held the Bombers jammer back as one impenetrable red wall. When Barbarich finally called off the jam, the score was 146-146. But because Barbarich had lapped the Bombers’ jammer on her first pass, it tipped to 147 in the All-Stars’ favour and they officially won their first sanctioned bout of the year.

The All-Stars don’t have much down time to celebrate after that skin-of-their-teeth victory – they travel to Bremerton, WA for the Wild West Showdown tournament on March 1-3. There, they will play 3 WFTDA-sanctioned bouts against Boise, ID’s Treasure Valley Rollergirls, Sacramento’s Sac City Rollers and the Santa Cruz Derby Girls.