Dawgs On Top: Waterdogs Keep The Repeat Dreams Alive, And Everything Else You Missed From The PLL Quarterfinals
There are owners in sports who have never once seen their team play for a championship. They've been around for years and years and years, and that team sucks so much ass that they've never even had an opportunity to lose in a championship game. Could you imagine how miserable that must be? To pour all your time and money and effort into a team that can't even sniff a championship like the Clippers, Lions, or Mariners.
Every owner in sports goes to bed dreaming about one day owning a team like the Waterdogs. This franchise has only been in existence for 4 years at this point. And in those 4 years, they've already won a championship and are now making their 3rd straight appearance in the PLL semifinals. They're just one more win away from getting a chance to defend their crown and win back-to-back titles. You want to talk about great expansion teams throughout sports history? The conversation starts and ends with the Dawgs.
Turns out the most effective way to be neglectful and as hands off as possible.
And people wonder how Jerry Jones could continue to run the Cowboys further into the ground every year. You want to stay as far removed from the team as possible. Make the team yearn for your love and attention. Clearly that did the trick for the Waterdogs yesterday as they took down the Whipsnakes 15-12 in the quarterfinals behind a monster game out of Michael Sowers and Kieran McArdle.
7 points on 5 goals and 2 assists out of Sowers. 8 points on 6 goals and 2 assists out of McArdle. They had more points between the two of them yesterday than the entire Whipsnakes team had combined. 15 total points for Sowers and McArdle, just 14 points total out of the Whipsnakes. There were only 2 goals the whole game that weren't either scored or assisted by either of them. When your top two guys are playing like that, it's damn near impossible for any other team in the league to keep up.
Obviously having your top 2 guys combine for 11 goals and 15 points is a solid recipe for success in the playoffs. But what happens when your top 2 guys don't even score a single goal? If you said the Redwoods played a playoff game yesterday and neither Rob Pannell or Ryder Garnsey scored, then I'd have to assume their season was over today. Good news for the Redwoods, however, is that Wes Berg exists and he put the team on his back.
He tied a PLL record with 7 goals in a single game, and the Chaos couldn't do shit about it.
I'd love to know how much time the ball actually spent in Wes Berg's stick yesterday. PLL games are 48 minutes long. Wes Berg touched the ball 18 times during the whole game, and he scored on 7 of those touches.
The ball is probably only in his stick for 1.5 seconds each touch. So let's go ahead say Wes Berg had the ball in his stick for 27 seconds yesterday. Those might have been the most lethal 27 seconds in lacrosse history. This man completely dismantled the Chaos' entire season in under 30 seconds. Take those 27 seconds away and the Chaos win this game 9-8. 10 weeks of lacrosse all for nothing because Wes Berg decided to score damn near every time he touched the ball. Redwoods win 15-9 and they'll be playing the 1-seed Archers next week in the semifinals.
And to round out the semifinals, the Cannons will be moving on after beating the brakes off the Atlas 20-11. I mean the Atlas didn't even deserve to be a playoff team this year. They only won 2 games all summer. But 7 out of the 8 teams in the league make the playoffs, and they just happened to not be the worst team in the league. But they sure as shit looked like it yesterday while Asher Nolting was putting them in hell all afternoon.
Just a reckless amount of shit talk coming out of that man this season, and you love to see it. I don't know if it's just me, but I always just assumed Asher Nolting was this sweet kid from Colorado who just wanted everybody to have a good time out there. I don't think anyone in the league has talked more shit than him this season, and it's abundantly clear that he wants to emotionally destroy his opponents just as much as he wants to dominate them on the scoreboard. The whole game yesterday just felt like one big bully fest.
This around-the-world wasn't necessarily gratuitous or anything. All things considered, it was probably the only option that Ryan Drenner had to get that shot off after that ridiculous handle. Even with that being the case, goals like this have to be an extra heavy kick in the nuts to the Atlas. Even when they're playing pretty good defense, they get dunked on like this. Rough scene to say the least.
So now we have the top 4 seeds in the league all advancing to the semifinals. The 1-seed Archers got themselves a bye to the semis, and they'll play the Redwoods at 3pm on Sunday. And then we'll have the 2-seed Cannons taking on the 3-seed Waterdogs at 5:30. Obviously it's a tough draw going up against week 1 of NFL Sunday, but find a way to make it happen. Bring the iPad with you to the bar or something. Whatever it takes.