ERG to Meet Grants Farm in PCO Finals
By Alex Webbe
Mansour gave ERG a game of it in the day’s first semifinals of the 2009 Bombardier Pacific Coast Open at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, leading 6-4 after the third chukker before a second half meltdown gave the 11-10 game to Scott Wood’s team from
Led by four first half goals from Martin Zegers and a pair from Adam Snow, Mansour took a 6-4 lead into the second half, but that was where it seemed to end.
ERG put three goals on the scoreboard in the fourth chukker to tie it at 7-7, holding Mansour to a single goal from Zegers.
In the fifth chukker, the ERG defense shut down any semblance of a Mansour attack while accounting for three goals of its own to run off to a 10-7 advantage.
Mansour crept back into the game with the help of three Penalty 2s, but Paco de Narvaez added his fourth goal on the day to seal the win for ERG and assure it of a berth in Sunday’s finals.
Jeff Blake led the ERG attack with seven goals on the day, scoring four times from the field and three times on penalty shots.
Zegers led the Mansour attack with seven goals as well. Zegers scored five times via the penalty shot and twice from the field.
GRANTS FARM 12, PATAGONES 11
“Hall Scores Eleven Goals in the Winâ€
In probably the fastest paced match of the day, Grants Farm took advantage of late penalties in the final two chukkers to take a very physical, hard-fought 12-11 semifinal game from a well-coordinated Patagones effort.
Brandon Phillips scored the first goal of the game for Patagones as they rode out to an early 3-2 lead.
Jeff Hall scored twice to put Grants Farm on top 4-3 but Carlos Gracida roared back with three straight goals for Patagones to put them up, 6-4.
As the pace increased, Hall and Gracida exchanged goals in the third. Sugar Erskine scored the last goal of the period but Patagones held on to a 7-6 edge to end the first half.
“I felt we had control of the game,†said Gracida, “the team was playing well and the horses were just where we wanted them to be.â€
Gracida and Carlos Avendano scored single goals for Patagones in the fourth chukker with Hall adding two more for Grants Farm to trail 9-8 at the end f the period.
The pace continued to be fast and fluid, but fouls started intruding into the flow. Every one of the final six goals scored in the last two chukkers came on penalty shots. Every one of them was a Penalty 2. Four of them went in favor of Grants Farm while Patagones received only two of them.
Hall made good on two of them in the fifth to give Grants Farm a brief 10-9 edge before Gracida’s sixth goal of the game tied it at 10-10.
Hall converted another penalty shot to open the scoring in the sixth, but Gracida tied it at 11-11 as he converted another penalty shot.
The final and deciding goal of the game came on a controversial penalty against Gracida on a ride-off that involved Hall. The whistle sounded and Hall converted the penalty shot for his eleventh goal of the game and the 12-11 win.
“It’s always disappointing when a game is decided by penalties,†offered Gracida, “Carlos and Gonzalo played solid polo throughout the tournament season here,†he added, “and Brandon (Phillips) did everything that was asked of him. We’re just going to have to come back and win it next year,†he said.
The victory vaulted Grants Farm into Sunday’s finals against ERG while Patagones will be packing up to head back east.
VALIENTE 9, LUCCHESE 8
Nacho Astrada had another big game for Valiente, scoring six times and leading the beleaguered team to a 9-8 win over an ineffective Lucchese team that just couldn’t shoot straight.
Missing all six of its penalty shots, the Lucchese team fell behind Valiente 5-4 after the first three chukkers and struggled to stay in the game.
Valiente led 8-5 at the end of the fifth chukker before 9-goaler Mike Azzaro scored thre goals from the field in the final chukker.
A single penalty conversion by Astrada proved to be the winning margin, with Astrada scoring on two 60-yard penalty shots while converting two Penalty 2s.
Lucchese missed three 40-yard penalty attempts, two 60-yard penalty efforts and a Safety in the 9-8 loss.
Astrada led all scoring with six goals. Lucchese’s Azzaro scored five times in the loss.
AUDI 4, ZACARA 3
Melissa Ganzi took the field for Audi, scoring two goals as it eked out a narrow 4-3 win over Zacara to earn a spot in Saturday’s Western Badge and Trophy Final, the subsidiary of the Pacific Coast Open.
In what can only be described as “lacking in offensive punchâ€, The teams battled to a 2-2 halftime score before Ganzi’s fifth chukker goal put Audi up 3-2.
Miguel Astrada answered with a tying goal to end the period.
Defense being the practice in the final seven minutes of play, Ganzi once again proved the answer, scoring her second goal of the game for the win, 4-3.