The Furious Truckstop Waitresses pose with their trophies Saturday night. Courtesty of FTW’s MySpace page.

In front of a quickly swelling crowd with a line to enter that snaked around the large facility, the Furious Truckstop Waitresses and Vice Squad were introduced on Saturday night at Bladeworld.

Tension made each moment seem like forever: waiting for the pregame clock to tick down, waiting through the national anthem, waiting through a brief pregame speech, waiting for the first jam’s whistle to sound.

It was all built around the marquee matchup of the Waitresses and Vice despite storylines of players leaving and revenge: there was a championship at stake with 60 minutes of play the separation factor.

After all season though it seemed like the game’s final 20-minute period, that of crucial penalties and tooth-and-nail points, was the difference.

That the Waitrsses eventually exited Bladeworld clutching orange-flaming 2006 championship trophies after a 81-73 victory, does not speak to the brutality of the game played on both sides and how easily it could have flipped either way.

“It was one of the hardest games I’ve ever played,” said Vice jammer/blocker and co-captain Penny Tencherry.

Tencherry was involved in what seemed like the first in a series of crucial penalties that hurt Vice in the final period.

Both teams had been batteling, brusing and enduring all night defensively, with high scoring rare as most jammers finished the majority of jams with 4-5 points on average it seemed.

In the third, Vice went on a 7-0 point run, closing within two points of the Waitresses, 59-57.

In the third period’s third jam, Tencherry was jamming and had broken away from the pack with FTW’s captain and pivot-powerhouse Deadlock Doe to beat. For a second, it looked like Vice was about to take control but Tencherry was called for what she says was tripping Doe.

“Doe tripped on my skate when I was trying to get my footing and tripping is a very, very bad thing in derby,” she said. ”(Tripping is) not what I was doing, I was just trying to skate but it had a big impact on the game.”

Referee Endless Justin said via e-mail even if Tencherry wasn’t trying to intentionally trip Doe, tripping is a penalty regardless.

“Referees will not try and read minds,” he said.

Why this play was so pivotal is it effectively haulted Vice’s run, put Tencherry in the penalty box, and helped FTW’s jammer Fisti Cuffs collect 11 points to pull ahead 70-57.

Later in the third period, Vice’s Barbicide was ejected from the game after tackling Cuffs- who was given a major penalty for punching Barbicide in the head.

Referee Justin said Barbicide was ejected under the rule that, “A skater may be expelled from the bout at the referees’ discretion for serious physical violence or any action deemed by the officials to cause an extraordinary physical threat to others.”

Afterwards Barbicide said she was as stunned about the ejection as anyone, “I don’t think it ever has happened before.”

Later in the third, there was one point in which it seemed like four Waitresses were sitting in the penalty box leaving one to face Vice, which led jammer Dirty Teri basically to rack up some points and help Vice again pull within two points at 75-73.

With the score so close and around three-and-a-half minutes remaining, in what could be seen as the game’s most crucial moment, Vice jammer Aja Consent had to sit out an entire jam after being called for a major penalty in the previous jam.

Ref Justin explains, “When called for a major penalty the skater has to skate around the track in the regular skating direction…. The penalty starts when the skater sits in the box. If she sits for one second and the jam ends she has served her penalty. If she has not sat down and the jam ends she has to serve her penalty for the entire next jam.”

So Vice jammer Consent was forced to sit during the game’s climax and watch as FTW’s Cuffs rattled away four blistering points to take a 78-73 lead with 1:30 left.

In the game’s last jam, FTW jammer Sloppy Flo broke away from the pack and added three more points as they ran the clock down to the title.

Flo said the Waitresses just stuck to the same tactics that helped them stay undefeated all season. “We had a plan,” she said. “It feels good.”

“It’s really good to go out on top,” Cuffs said following her final game as a Waitress. “We had the teamwork and we played together better than we ever have before.”

Analysis

If anything, the Waitresses endured the most brutal of games Tucson Roller Derby has seen this season, and I’m guessing any other, to regain the title.

This was a game in which, not only did every point count, but also each penalty.

The two squads ended up pretty even in the penalty category: FTW had 54 total (12 major) and Vice ended with 58 total (17 major.)

Neither team was ready to back down at any point and I’d say 2005 champs Vice, skating without captain Whiskey Mick and sporting new black uniforms with a red sock (which is commendable as a Red Sox fan) on each right foot, could have upset and repeated had one or two things gone differently.

The Waitresses were able to maintain a lead for most of the game, capitalize more on Vice penalties and eventually survive to be named 2006 season champions.

The stakes have been raised to an all-time high in Tucson Roller Derby and if you think that was something, just wait until next year.

View photos from the bout by Julie Ramsey in “The Pictures with Jewels”...

Watch video highlights of the championship bout…