Mt. Brilliant and Equuleus Score Wins in Ylvisaker Cup
By Alex Webbe
Faraway and Mt. Brilliant entered the field behind their respective captains, brothers Hutton and Bo Goodman. Hutton’s Faraway team had just captured the 2011 Joe Barry Memorial Cup via a 10-9 win (that many considered an upset) over brother Bo’s previously undefeated Mt. Brilliant team in semifinal action, and had some pay back on their minds Saturday afternoon in Ylvisaker Cup play at the International Polo Club in Wellington, Florida.
In a fast-paced first chukker, Faraway scored the first goal on a penalty conversion by Julio Gracida that was answered by goals from Mt. Brilliant’s Mike Azzaro and Nic Roldan. A second penalty goal was tallied by Julio Arellano to end the first chukker in a 2-2.
Mt. Brilliant took the field in the second chukker and quickly scored three goals (two from Roldan and one from Azzaro) before Gaston Laulhe responded with a goal from the field. Mt. Brilliant took a 5-3 lead, and would never trail again..
Two more goals from Roldan were countered by a single Arellano goal for Faraway on a miscue by Mt. Brilliant’s Ulysses Escapite. Mt. Brilliant extended its lead to three goals, 7-4, to end the first half.
Azzaro added a goal in the fourth for Mt. Brilliant and Arellano responded with another penalty conversion. Faraway continued to trail by three goals, 8-5.
Fast action and furious shots were taken throughout the fifth and sixth chukkers with Faraway cutting the lead to two goals, 8-6 on another Arellano penalty goal in the fifth, and Julio Gracida adding a pair in the sixth. Azzaro’s fourth goal of the game sealed Faraway’s fate, as Mt. Brilliant went on to win, 9-8.
“We played our game today,†said Mt. Brilliant 8-goaler Nic Roldan. Our horses were in good shape and we were always there for the play. We played much better than we did last time (the team’s one goal loss to Faraway in the Barry Memorial Cup semifinals).
Roldan led all scoring with five goals. Teammate Mike Azzaro added four goals in the win.
Arellano led Faraway with four goals. Gracida added three and Gaston Laulhe (substituting for the injured Sugar Erskine) scored once.
EQUULEUS 8, ZACARA 6
Zacara seemed to have some life in the opening chukker, scoring the first goal of the game (Marcos Uranga) but umpires’ whistles and consecutive penalties slowed down the action on the field.
Nineteen penalties were whistled in the first three chukkers as Equuleus loped off to a 5-3 halftime lead. Four of Equuleus’s first five goals came on penalty shots while two out of three of Zacara’s goals were scored from the penalty line.
Goals from the field from Jeff Blake and Marcos Uranga tied it up at 5-5, but Marianito Obregon converted a penalty shot in the fourth followed by a goal from the field from Adam Snow, and the chukker ended with Equuleus holding on to a two goal, 7-5 lead.
Mariano Gonzalez scored the only goal of the fifth with Equuleus shutting out the Zacara offense for the second time on the day. Equuleus took am 8-5 led into the sixth chukker.
Equuleus never stopped fighting for the ball, but didn’t suffer the pressure to score that was heaped on the shoulders of the Zacara players.
Blake scored the final goal of the game, but neither team showed the kind of offense we expect to see from them in the future.
Gonzalez scored five times for Equuleus. Snow added two goals for the win and Obregon scored once.
Zacara got four goals from Blake and a pair of scores from Marcos Uranga.