Keeping Up With A Time Honored Tradition, The Philadelphia Waterdogs Lose Championship Game In Heartbreaking Fashion
They were still just Waterdogs LC when they lost the PLL Championship to the Archers back in September. The 8 teams in the league still hadn't adopted host cities at that point. But the final game was played in Philly, and the Waterdogs came out on the losing end. A 2nd place finish while sitting on the Delaware River just felt like the Waterdogs were destined to become a Philly team.
Then in November, the PLL announced the new home cities/regions for all of the teams. Just like that, destiny was fulfilled as Waterdogs LC became the Philly Waterdogs.
Today they had their first chance of playing for a title as a true Philly team in the Championship Series final. The last game of a 5-day offseason tournament. The Waterdogs were the only team in the tournament to go 4-0 through the round robin stage, and then obviously the semifinal. They hadn't lost a game in 2024. But it don't mean a thing if you ain't got that ring.
The bad news started when the Dawgs lost Michael Sowers in the first 90 seconds of the game. He's one of the best players on the planet, and is what you'd call the "straw that stirs the drink" for this offense. The game barely even started before he took a hit to the head and was ruled out for the rest of the game. The whole first half was a total gong show with the Cannons doing everything possible to be the scummiest team known to man.
It seemed like it backfired on the Cannons late in the 1st half, and poking the bear only got the Waterdogs more fired up.
But they were never able to separate themselves enough to put the Cannons away for good. They were up by 2 with 2 minutes to go, but then that's where the heartbreak began. Bounces just weren't going their way, and everything worked out for the Cannons.
First you had this crazy sequence to get the Cannons within 1. And then this Asher Nolting goal was a fraction of an inch away from being a crease violation.
Goal was good, and now this game was going to overtime. The Eagles had a 10-point lead on the Chiefs at halftime. The Phillies had a 2-1 series lead on the Astros. The Union were up in extra team against LAFC. And now the Philadelphia Waterdogs get to experience their own heartbreak by being up by 2 with 2 minutes to play, and getting their hearts ripped out in overtime.
This was after Matt DeLuca had already made 3 ridiculous saves in overtime to keep the game going. Brutal way to go out, but I guess that means we can truly consider the Waterdogs one of our own now. Welcome to the club, boys. The coffee is hot and the bathroom is down the hall to the left.