A 70th minute score put the Chicago Hounds (6-1, 27 points, 1st East) up for good in a 27-20 loss for the Legion (5-2, 26 points, T-1st West), their second straight defeat – and their first at home – after a 5-0 start to the season.
The loss keeps them locked in a tie with the Houston SaberCats (5-2, 26 points, T-1st West) and gives the Utah Warriors (4-2, 21 points, 3rd West) a chance to join that tie with them not having played a seventh match of the season yet.
It was a match between the top teams in each conference who only get to play each other once this year. If they do meet again this season, it’d be in the MLR Championship match.
San Diego took the lead in the seventh minute and Chicago re-took the lead in the 13th minute. The Legion again got a lead in the 37th minute and the Hounds responded with a first-half score after the 40-minute mark.
The Legion tied the match at 20 apiece in the 57th minute, but 13 minutes later, the Hounds again answered, this time with the game-winning score.
Flanker Christian Poidevin scored his team-leading sixth try of the season in a 37th-minute score which also gave him tries in three consecutive matches.
Winger Rhian Stowers, who played at fullback in his first two starts with the Legion, scored his second try of the season in three starts (four appearances). Stowers started at right wing over Tomas Aoake because San Diego wanted another player who can kick the ball well in the back against a Chicago side who does that well, head coach John Manenti said, and because the league only allows for 10 international players on each team’s 23-player match roster.
Aoake and Brook To'omalatai would’ve been on the match roster had it not been for the limitation on international players, Manenti said after the match.
The Hounds – known for their kicking skills in the backfield – scored in the first three minutes when they gained possession right at the start of the game from a mistake which turned into a penalty goal in the third minute to strike first.
Chicago flyhalf Chris Hilsenbeck was perfect on two penalty goals and two conversions. He was also pivotal to Chicago's kicking strategy.
The Legion replaced center Tavite Lopeti in the 22nd minute after a scratch in the eye prevented him from temporarily seeing. Manenti said he did not know if that would keep him out of the next match. Tiaan Loots took his place and didn’t miss a beat with the backs where he’s started three times this season.
San Diego picked up a bonus point in the Western Conference table for losing by 7 or fewer points, which brings them back to a first-place tie with Houston after they lost to Los Angeles in an earlier match Saturday.
Up next: The Legion hit the road with the possibility of losing three matches in a row for the first time since the 2022 season when they face the back-to-back defending champion New England Free Jacks (3-3, 16 points, 3rd East) with an 11 a.m. kickoff in Quincy, Mass. on Saturday, April 12.