Party Crashers suffer narrow defeat in Peoria
August 25th, 2012
By Vivi Section
Photos by Steve Jurkovic
Peoria, Ill. — The Circle City Derby Girls’ Party Crashers lost a hard-fought battle against the Wrecking Crew of the Peoria Push in their opponents' home venue on Aug. 25. The teams traded leads throughout the first forty minutes, but the girls in purple managed to overtake CCDG in the second half, resulting in a 104-128 loss.
Circle City’s Trudy Bauchery stepped up to the line for the first jam, drawing first blood with a quick 5 points for the PCs, calling it before Peoria could respond. Trudy was among three rookies who made up the evening’s primary jammer rotation for the green team, which included Wicked Baum-Chele and Crash Menagerie. Sweet Caroline took lead jammer for the Wrecking Crew in the third jam, but allowed Crash to put up some points on a scoring pass, bringing the score to 9-6 in favor of CCDG. Chele grabbed a quick lead on the inside during the fifth jam, taking two passes before the Peoria jammer could get into scoring position, pushing CCDG’s lead up to 18-6.
The scores inched up slowly during the first period, with lead jammers from either team only making a single pass before calling it to prevent the other team from scoring or both jammers emerging from the pack neck-and-neck, forcing the lead jammer to call it with goose eggs for each side. About 16 minutes into the game, CCDG was able to boost their score considerably when the Wrecking Crew’s jammer Sweet Caroline, who joined Peoria’s roster from the Prairieland Punishers (Decatur, Ill.), once again opted not to defensively call the jam, allowing Chele to score 13 points to her 5. That brought the score to 38-22 in favor of CCDG. 
Unfortunately, the Party Crashers then lost their ability to score for nearly two consecutive jams when Smack Her Elli went to the box twice while wearing a jammer star, allowing Peoria to take the lead for the first time in the game. With the score at 38-46 in favor of the Illinois team, CCDG called a time out. In the next jam, Psychokid D Freakout, another Prairieland Punishers player who joined Peoria’s roster, took 2 points, but ended the jam as Chele threatened to score for Indianapolis. As the clock wound down on the second half, both Trudy and Chele managed to add points for the PCs, leaving CCDG breathing down Peoria’s neck with a score of 46-48 at halftime.
Both teams came back fighting at the beginning of the second period, resulting in a series of lead changes in the first several jams as both teams attempted to control the back of the pack. Ten minutes in, the scoreboard showed a 67-67 tie. As the period progressed, CCDG’s blockers suffered some penalty trouble, which resulted in short packs for the green team, giving Peoria a window to boost its score. The scoreboard showed 86-106 in favor of the Wrecking Crew at about 10 minutes to go. With only Trudy and Philly Cheezskate blocking for green, Sweet Caroline took a trip to the sin bin, allowing Chele to bring the score to spitting distance at 94-106. However, Peoria managed to snag the lead more times in the remaining jams, ultimately resulting in a 104-128 loss for CCDG. The Party Crashers will close out their season on Sept. 9 when they travel to Muncie, Ind., to take on the Cornfed Derby Dames.
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