Valiente Scores in Final Seconds to Win
By Alex Webbe
After falling behind early in the Western Badge and Trophy Cup, the subsidiary of the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, Valiente scored seven times in the final two chukkers to capture the 14-13 win on a goal scored by Federico von Wernich, in the last 19 seconds of play.
Taking the field behind Melissa Ganzi, Audi received one goal by handicap to start the match and quickly ran it into a 9-6 halftime lead. Audi’s Kris Kampsen set the pace for the Wellington-based team, scoring six goals with all but one of them coming on penalty shots. Luis Escobar added two more goals in the Audi first half effort.
Valiente took an initial lead as Carlucho Arellano scored the first two goals of the field and von Wernich’s single goal gave them a short-lived 3-2 advantage. Audi scored three times in the second, while shutting out the Valiente offense, and four times in the third.
Nacho Astrada scored his first two goals of the game in the third chukker with von Wernich adding a single goal before the end of the first half as they trailed 9-6.
Escobar and Arellano exchanged goals in the fourth for the only scoring of the chukker and then Valiente came alive.
Von Wernich and Astrada each scored a pair of goals while holding Audi to a single penalty goal, and the game was all even at 11-11.
The paced picked up again in the final chukker with Astrada opening the scoring to put Valiente ahead 12-11. Escobar scored to tie it at 12-12, and so it went. Back and forth until the final seconds of the game when it was all even at 13-13, and Valiente was on the attack. With nineteen seconds left on the clock, von Wernich slipped the ball through the Audi defenders for the winning goal.
Kampsen led all scoring with eight goals. Escobar finished with four goals for Audi.
Nacho Astrada led the Valiente attack with six goals. Von Wernich scored five times and Arellano accounted for three goals in the win.
The Bombardier Pacific Coast Open will conclude on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm with ERG meeting Grants Farm in the finals.
Grants Farm will be led by 7-goaler Jeff Hall, who has been averaging six goals a game while ERG will rely on a more balanced attack led by Paco de Narvaez. Grants Farm has been averaging 12 goals per game through the preliminary matches while ERG is scoring an average of nine goals a game.