In any sport, the worst thing you can give an underdog is hope. For a brief spell in the first half of their Saturday bout against the Gotham Girls Roller Derby All-Stars at the Abe Stark Arena in Coney Island, Pittsburgh’s Steel City Steel Hurtin’ had erased a 78-0 deficit and had closed to within 40 points of the defending WFTDA champions with 10 minutes remaining.

You could see the spark of life in the short-handed but determined Steel City squad, with only 11 skaters staring down the Gotham juggernaut that had beaten them by 244 and 374 points in their last two meetings.

Defensively, Gotham was on from the opening whistle, and while they had willing dance partners in the always tenacious Steel City captain Ally McKill, the ability of GGRD to mix offensive and defensive blocking seamlessly ruled the day.

Yet as penalties became an issue and Gotham skaters started getting sent to the box, Steel City capitalized, narrowing the gap to 88-48. But then the hometown favorites got back on track, tightened up the ship discipline wise, and by halftime, the score was 165-48.

There would be periodic lapses in the final 30 minutes in which GGRD had some penalty trouble again, but for the most part, they showed little, if any, signs of seeing their unbeaten record threatened anytime soon.

(Thomas Gerbasi) (Photos: Kenneth B. Goldberg)