By migration, Last updated Tue Jun 17 2008 8:49pm

BALTIMORE, MD -- There's a specific amount of time that it takes to start a scoring pass in roller derby, but that amount of time is slightly different with every matchup. Unfortunately for Charm City's Night Terrors, the amount of time they needed in their recent matchup with the Mobtown Mods was just a few seconds longer than the time they had available, and they'd go down to a nailbiting 77-74 loss that sent the Mods to their first win streak in their three-year history and the Terrors to their first losing streak since August 2006.

The first couple of swings in the 40 minute game would be a couple of haymakers for both teams. The Night Terrors' Rosie the Rioter laid a 10-0 smackdown on Lady Quebeaum in the game's opening jam, with a strong pack of Mibbs Breakin' Ribs, Frenzy Lohan, Psycho78 and Blind Banshee locking Quebeaum down, but on the very next jam the Mods responded with a 17-0 for Duchess of Torque over Minnie Piledriver, as Mods blocker Joy Collision completely had Minnie's number from start to finish.

The first five jams of the half would all be full-length, and the Terrors would remain approximately 10 points down for the remainder of a first period that ended 45-34 for the Mods.

The Mods' star jammer Joy Collision was only used one time in the first half, but the Mods turned to her exclusively in the opening three jams of the second half. While she got lead and an 8-5 win over Terrors' captain Marzipain to start the half, the second two jams would be washes, as Joy and the Terrors' Minnie Piledriver struggled to a 4-4 decision and the Terrors' Psycho78 took advantage of a lead jammer call to cut off the action against Joy at 0-0, leaving the score at 56-43 for the Mods three jams deep into the second half.

Relying mostly on Lady Quebeaum and Duchess of Torque on the jam line, the Mods kept the lead hovering between 10 and 20 points for most of the second half, but the Terrors threatened quite seriously as the half drew to a close. The Mods were up 77-54 with about nine minutes to go, but the Terrors chose that moment to launch a fierce rally that would land just a few seconds and a few points too short.

First of all, Psycho78 would drop a 5-0 grand slam on Lady Quebeaum, who was forced to end the jam in the box. A lengthy referee timeout after that jam would end with critical Mods blocker Ang Thrax finding herself ejected from the half on four trips to the penalty box --- and the Terrors' Rosie the Rioter was happy to take advantage of that, sidling through a strung-out pack of her own for another 5-0 with about 6 minutes left to play, though Mods blockers Judy Boom and Penaltyna held her up long enough to kill the remainder of Quebeaum's penalty. That made the score Mods 77, Terrors 64.

The comeback continued on the next jam, when Mods jammer Duchess of Torque found hung up behind Terrors blocker Frenzy Lohan and then found herself visiting the penalty box early after a cutting-track major -- but she'd soon be joined in the box by Marzipain, who racked up 3 points before getting her own cutting track major.

This made it 77-67 Mods with just over two minutes to play, but the Terrors had an advantage as they had Radar Love jamming against the Mods' Knockout Summer Teef, with the jammerless jam situation forcing the rookie Mods blocker to the jam line for the first time in her first bout. Both jammers had a rough time making their first pass through the pack, but Radar was out first with lead jammer status -- and Summer, while she did make it through once, ran into trouble in trying to get past Mibbs Breakin' Ribs -- Summer went to the penalty box before scoring a single point. Luckily for the Mods, Radar didn't notice that she was suddenly unopposed, and would call the jam off at 7-0 with about 44 seconds left on the clock.

A few precious seconds bled off the clock before the Terrors were granted a timeout with 36 seconds left to play, the score 77-74 for the Mods, and Terrors captain Marzipain unopposed on the jammer line as Summer was stuck in the penalty box.

The Terrors had more than a couple dramatic comeback wins under their belts, but this time there just weren't enough ticks left on the clock. The Terrors defense managed to split the pack on Marizpain's opening lap, and Mods blockers Lady Quebeaum and Duchess of Torque would both go to the penalty box with out-of-play hits on Marizpain -- but those hits slowed her down just barely enough to make the difference. While Marz broke the pack and got lead jammer with about 15 ticks left on the clock, she couldn't close the gap in time to change the score, and the Mods improved to 2-0 in the 2008 campaign with a hard-fought, three-point defeat of the two-time defending champions, 77-74.

Stats

Duchess of Torque had one of her strongest performances to date, leading all scorers with 35 points on 10 jams and outscoring her opponents by 13 points. Joy Collision, though she was used much more in the pack than on the line, was also a key part of the Mods' offense, pulling in 25 points on 5 jams and also getting a +13 point differential.

Lady Quebeaum picked up 9 points on 6 jams and posted a -19 differential, while Ang Thrax got 8 points on her single jam and a +6 differential. Finally, Knockout Summer Teef had 0 points on 2 jams and a -7 differential.

For the Terrors, Rosie the Rioter had a stellar set of turns wearing the star, getting 32 points on only 5 jams, averaging 6.4 points per jam, and posting the best jammer point differential on either team with a +17.

Marzipain was responsible for 15 points on 7 jams and a point differential of -7, while Minnie Piledriver picked up 12 points on 6 jams but was outscored by 27 points on the night.

Psycho78 contributed 8 points on 6 jams with a +4 differential, Radar Love had 7 points and a +7 differential in her single jam, and Mibbs Breakin Ribs', who received an third-jam star pass from Psycho78, had 0 points and an even differential in that jam.

The undefeated Mods take on the undefeated Junkyard Dolls for undisputed control of the #1 playoff seed on July 26, while the winless Night Terrors and Speed Regime will each be trying to relegate the other to the standings cellar.

Photos: gCrraig