Manhattan Mayhem vs. Brooklyn Bombshells

This was an exciting bout, with some spectacular jams (including one 20-point scoring drive!).

I was told by someone at the last bout that Manhattan wasn’t all that good. It would appear that their information was slightly out of date. 🙂 The score was 72–30 Manhattan at the half, and they continued to expand their lead into a 146–91 victory.

The Mayhem have some good jammers—Em Dash is very quick, and Fisti Cuffs and GoGo BaiBai aren’t exactly pokey—but what utterly blew me away was their coordination as a team. Their defense was super-tight: a scene that repeated itself over and over throughout the game was a Bombshells jammer running into a wall of orange while Manhattan’s jammer whizzed by (or got whipped past). In one particularly good jam in the first half, Manhattan’s blockers managed to hold Li’l Red Terror back from even breaking through the pack while the Mayhem jammer got three grand slams.

Straight Razor put on a particularly good showing, and Pie was outstanding as a pivot—I swear she’s got eyes in the back of her head. They were also extremely adept at setting picks; Brooklyn’s blockers rarely got a crack at the Manhattan jammer without having to evade an opposing defender first. The only real downside to their defense was that, at least at first, they were a little too physical; there was a lot of time in the penalty box for the Mayhem, and Luna Impact got her bell rung about five minutes before the end of the first half…not cool.

This is not to disparage Brooklyn’s performance; Ani Dispanco and Li’l Red Terror proved they could get around the track in a hurry when they could break through the Manhattan defense. It seemed like by the end of the game they were getting frustrated, though, and playing a little rougher than was probably advisable—there was a series of three consecutive jams in the second half where the Brooklyn jammer ended up in the penalty box.

So far, I’ve been very happy with my first two GGRD experiences, and look forward to the next one.

Brooklyn and Manhattan get ready to jam

Brooklyn and Manhattan get ready to jam

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