BALTIMORE, MD -- Charm City's Mobtown Mods showed on Saturday night that they were ready to fully put their nightmarish 0-7 2007 season behind them, taking the lead on the second jam against the Junkyard Dolls and never relinquishing it in their first dominating performance since September 2006 to win 97-58.

View the box score from this bout!

Both teams came into the bout undefeated with 2-0 records, but also with a short roster of only 10. The Dolls seemed to have a little more trouble deploying their available troops -- troubles that were severely compounded when they lost all-star blocker Coach Ballbricker to an early knee injury.

Dolls captain Dolly Rocket led off the bout at the jammer line and staked the Dolls to an early 3-0 lead, slicing through the pack with her trademark insouciance to shut out opponent Duchess of Torque. However, the Mods had the answer for that with the nationally feared Joy Collision, who lapped fellow all-star Flo Shizzle of the Dolls to make the score 5-3 in favor of the red-and-black.

Things stayed close with a quick 5-4 win for the Dolls, as the leggy Ella Fitzperil bested Duchess of Torque again, but the Mods unveiled their newest weapon in Thumper Good on jam 4, and it opened up the bout early. Opponent Flo Shizzle got wrapped up by tough Mods defense, and Thumper rolled for three scoring laps in a big 12-4 win over Flo that made the score Mods 21, Dolls 12.

After a 2-2 tie between Lady Quebeaum and Dolly Rocket, the Dolls got a tough break when Coach Ballbricker went down early in the next jam, clutching her knee in pain. The jam was called for injury and DuBurns Arena got very quiet as the EMTs brought out the stretcher, but Ballbricker was eventually able to limp off the track under her own power to a raucous ovation. Unfortunately for the wrecking crew, Ballbricker would not return and it was apparent for the rest of the bout that it was playing havoc with the Dolls lineups.

The Mods snagged lead jammer status on the next three jams and proceeded to build a 35-17 lead with about 7 minutes to play in the half, highlighted by another big jam for first-game rookie Thumper Good over Flo Shizzle, 8-3. While the Dolls pulled lead on three of the last four jams of the half, they still continued to lose ground as the one Mods lead jam ended up being a lopsided 9-1 for Joy Collision over Flo Shizzle. The half ended at Mods 48, Dolls 27.

Thumper Good continued her success against Flo Shizzle as the second half started, taking lead jammer and a 7-0 win, and then the Mods' Joy Collision burned up the sport court in the biggest jam of the night, a 17-7 win over Ella Fitzperil on the second jam of the half. With almost a full half left to play, the Mods had built a nearly insurmountable 72-34 lead.

The Dolls, already in trouble from their short roster and the Ballbricker injury, often found themselves having to scramble to change lineups due to penalty problems, and seemed unable to find a way to slow the Mods' scoring. In a game-sealing sequence through the middle of the half, the Mods would win five jams in a row in a 25-13 run that moved the score to 97-48 with 6 minutes to play.

While the Dolls did claim lead on three jams in a row and score 10 unanswered points to close the game, the game had been effectively put out of reach as the second half opened, and the Mods moved to 3-0 with their 97-58 win.

Stats

Mods jammer Thumper Good had arguably the best debut in Charm City history, leading all scorers with 39 points on 7 jams and putting up a +22 jammer point differential. Joy Collision needed only 4 jams to throw in 31 points of her own and a +23 JPD. Lady Quebeaum put up 14 points on 5 jams and collected a +10 differential, while Duchess of Torque had 13 points on 6 jams with a -10 differential. Angthrax jammed twice due to ending a jam in the penalty box -- she scored no points and had a -6 JPD.

First-year rookie Ella Fitzperil led the Dolls scoring charge, with 21 points on 6 jams and a -3 JPD. All-star Flo Shizzle had an uncharacteristically tough night with the jammer star, scoring 17 points on 10 jams and getting outscored by 44 points. Dolly Rocket was the only Dolls jammer in positive point differential, scoring 13 points on 5 jams but getting a +10 JPD. Maiden China (4 points) and Dirty Trixie (3 points) each jammed once, both getting outscored by a point.

As in the other bout of the night, penalty totals were rather even -- the Dolls picked up 55 minors and 5 majors while the Mods got 52 minors and 7 majors. Judy Boom was most penalized for the Mods with 9 minors, while Dolly Rocket got the most penalties for the Dolls, with 9 minors and 2 majors.

Lead jammer status was perfectly evenly split between the two teams -- each got it 12 times -- but critically, the Mods won every jam in which they had lead, while the Dolls tied or lost in four of their lead jam opportunities.

The 3-0 Mods get to play the 0-3 Speed Regime in the September 13 semifinals, while the 2-1 Dolls go up against the 1-2 Night Terrors. The winners of those two contests will battle for the third-season championship in October.

Photos: fordprefectajt