Valiente wins Joe Barry Memorial, 13-8
By Alex Webbe
Valiente
(Bob Jornayvaz, Santi Torres, Sapo Caset and Roberto Zedda) came out on top of
a see-saw battle with Tonkawa (Jeff Hildebrand, Gonzalito Pieres, Rodrigo
Andrade and Tomas Alberdi) Sunday afternoon in the final of the 2014 Joe Barry
Memorial Cup at the International Polo Club with a rash of penalties in the
sixth chukker that turned a neck-and-neck game into a five goal rout.
Goals
were hard to come by in the opening chukker of play, with Valiente’s Santi
Torres scoring the first goal of the match at the 4:14 mark for a 1-0
lead. Teammates Roberto Zedda and Sapo
Caset followed up with single goals of their own while Tonkawa was unable to
get their attack on track and remained scoreless, and trailed 3-0.
Gonzalito
finally got Tonkawa on the scoreboard in the second period by way of a pair of
penalty conversions, but Valiente continued to lead, 3-2. Torres scored the final goal of the chukker
to put Valiente on top of a 4-2 score.
The two
teams traded goals in the third, with Caset scoring twice (one on a penalty
conversion) for Valiente and Gonzalito Pieres (penalty shot) and Rodrigo
Andrade picking up goals for Tonkawa. At
the end of the first half Valiente was in front by two goals, 6-4.
Valiente
team captain Bob Jornayvaz found himself on the receiving end of a beautifully
placed pass from Caset and burned it through the goalposts for a 7-4 Valiente
lead. Pieres responded with four
consecutive goals (three on penalty shots) for their first lead of the day,
8-7. Valiente answered back, as Caset made
good on two penalty shots to close the chukker.
Valiente was back in the lead, but the margin had been cut to a single
goal, 9-8.
Horse races
up and down the field continued into the fifth chukker, but scoring was at a
premium as neither team was able to break through the opposition to score. Valiente continued to defend a one goal lead,
9-8, as they entered the final chukker of play.
Defenses
continued to rule the day in the opening minutes of the sixth chukker, until Caset
scored from the field for a 180-8 edge.
Torres made it 11-8 on his third goal of the day, but that was when the
wheels came off the Tonkawa wagon. Three
consecutive technical fouls were converted into two more goals for Valiente,
with Caset converting on both attempts.
The game ended with Valiente celebrating the 13-8 Joe Barry Memorial Cup
victory.
Caset
led all scoring with eight goals (four on penalty shots). Torres scored three times while Jornayvaz and
Zedda each added a goal for the win.
Pieres led the Tonkawa attack with seven goals (six coming on penalty
shots). Andrade scored the other goal in
the Tonkawa loss.
Valiente’s
Santi Torres was named MVP, while Rodrigo Andrade’s Quiosquero was honored as Best Playing Pony.
ORCHARD HILL 12, FLIGHT OPTIONS 10
Earlier
in the day Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel, Lucas Criado, Facundo Pieres and Marcos
Alberdi) outlasted Flight Options (Melissa Ganzi, Freddie Mannix, Miguel
Astrada and Juan Bollini), 12-10, in a fast moving contest that decided the 2014
Bobby Barry Cup title.
Facundo
Pieres scored the first goal of the game in the opening minute of play on a 200-yard
run down the field that culminated in a 70-yard shot through the posts for the
1-0 Orchard Hill lead. A minute later Miguel Astrada tied it up for
Flight Options, 1-1, with a 40-yard penalty conversion for a goal. Juan Bollini gave the lead back to Flight
Options with a goal from the field.
Flight Options left the field with a narrow 2-1 advantage.
Second
period play saw Bollini score to move Flight Options in front, 3-1. Astrada added two more goals as the Flight
Options lead continued to grow, 5-2.
Orchard Hill got a single penalty goal from Caset.
Orchard
Hill took control of the game in the third period, scoring three times while
holding Flight Options scoreless.
Facundo Pieres opened the chukker with a penalty goal followed by a goal
from the field from Criado. Another goal
from Facundo Pieres ended the first half with the team all even at 5-5.
Fred Mannix
got Flight Options back on the scoreboard with a goal from the field for a 6-5
lead. Facundo Pieres scored twice to
quickly regain the lead, 7-6. Facundo
Pieres added another goal from the field for a 7-6 edge. Astrada knotted up the score again, 7-7, with
the conversion of a safety (60-yards). Facundo Pieres and Marcos Alberdi each added a
goal to end the chukker with Orchard Hill still on top, 9-7.
Flight
Options scored on a pair of goals from Astrada (one on a penalty conversion) to
tie it up, 9-9., while the team’s defense did the rest. Orchard Hill was unable to score and left the
field at the end of the fifth chukker all tied up at 9-9.
Astrada
gave Flight Options the lead, once again, on a goal from the field, but the
balance of the period belonged to Orchard Hill.
Facundo Pieres converted a penalty shot for the 10-10 tie at the 5:02
mark of the chukker. It was nearly four
minutes of scoreless play before Criado took a pass from Pieres and raced down
the field to score, 11-10. Criado
stretched the Orchard Hill lead to two goals with his second goal of the
chukker in the 12-10 victory.
Facundo
Pieres led all scoring with eight goals, and was named MVP for his
efforts. Lucas Criado’s Chiruza received Best Playing Pony
honors.
LOS MONJITAS 11, CT ENERGIA 10
In a
morning match between Las Monjitas (Camilo Bautista, Geronimo Obregon, Eduardo
Astrada, and Alejandro Astrada) and CT Energia (Alessandro Bazzoni, Kris Kampsen,
Joao Paulo Ganon and Nick Manifold), Las
Monjitas scored a come-from-behind victory in an 11-10 thriller.
Geronimo
Obregon got Los Monjitas on the scoreboard early with a goal from the field. CT Energia’s Joao Ganon scored on a pair of
penalty goals. Alejandro Astrada
converted a penalty shot for Las Monjitas.
CT Energia received one goal by handicap and took the early 3-2 lead.
Alejandro
Astrada converted another goal in the second chukker but goals from the field from
CT Energia team captain, Alessandro Bazzoni and Ganon had Las Monjitas in
front, 5-3.
The two
teams swapped goals in the third, with Bazzoni and Ganon (penalty shot) scoring
single goals for CT Energia and Las Monjitas picking up goals from Obregon and
Eduardo Astrada. At the halfway point,
CT Energia was riding a 7-5 lead.
Alejandro
Astrada added two more penalty goals in the fourth while a violent crash
suffered by Kris Kampsen while charging down the field at full tilt (horse
stumbled and fell head first) delayed the game by fifteen minutes while medics
attended to Kampsen. He returned to the field,
but the momentum was lost and the chukker ended in a 7-7 tie.
Bazzoni
converted a penalty shot for CT Energia in the fifth, but single goals from
Obregon and Eduardo Astrada had Las Monjitas on top, 9-8, with one chukker left
to play.
Eduardo
Astrada opened the sixth with a penalty conversion to give Las Monjitas a two
goal lead, 10-8. CT Energia responded
with goals from Ganon (penalty conversion) and Kampsen, 10-10. Alejandro Astrada scored the final goal of
the match for the 11-10 Las Monjitas victory.
Alejandro
Astrada’s team-high five goals all came on penalty shots. Obregon and Eduardo Astrada added three goals
apiece for the win. Ganon scored four of
his five goals on penalty conversions.
Bazzoni added three goals and Kampsen scored once in the loss. CT Energia also received one goal by
handicap.