The Philadelphia Waterdogs made a statement in their 2025 PLL season opener with a 16-12 win over the Maryland Whipsnakes. Getting great contributions from the offense, with Kieran McArdle racking up 4 goals on the night and Jack Hannah putting up a hat-trick. There was one play that stood out to me, and that was Hannah bouncing off of a defender with a spin move and making a nice goal. Thomas McConvey also recorded a hat-trick.
However, the key to this game was Michael Sowers using his vision to read what the Maryland Whipsnakes defense was throwing at him and having a counterpunch ready. Whether it was finding teammates open in pockets of the field or identifying the one-on-one coverages he wanted, the Waterdogs attackman had seven assists and one goal for an eight-point game. We shall see if the Waterdogs can run it back in their Homecoming this weekend when the PLL comes to Philly. They will face two tough opponents in the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Cannons (2-0) and a desperate Denver Outlaws team (0-2) that does not want to fall further behind in the standings.
Waterdogs put Whipsnakes in early-season hole – can they recover?
Unfortunately, the Whipsnakes did not have things go their way against Philly as they now fall 0-2 on the season. But not all is lost for Maryland – they outplayed the Waterdogs in picking up ground balls (32-20) and winning battles at the faceoff circle (18-10). TJ Malone played amazingly with 2 goals and 3 assists. and the Whipsnakes had a pair of players score 2-point goals, Brad Smith and Scott Smith. Maryland needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to get back into the win column as they get ready to face New York next weekend at Villanova Stadium.
