Orchard Hill Wins Hall of Fame Cup
By Alex Webbe
Argentine 10-goaler Pablo MacDonough led all scoring with eight goals as Orchard Hill swept over Pony Express 14-10 to capture the 2010 Hall of Fame Cup at the International Polo club in Wellington Saturday afternoon.
Pony Express received two goals by handicap and quickly ran it up to a 4-0 lead before Orchard Hill got their legs under them, but when they came back, they came back with a vengeance.
MacDonough converted two penalty shots in the first chukker and added three more goals in the second. Additional goals from Lucas Criado and Hector Galindo had Orchard Hill boasting a 7-4 lead after the first fifteen minutes of play.
Criado added two more goals from the field in the third chukker while MacDonough tallied his sixth goal of the game to give Orchard him a commanding 10-4 halftime lead, as Pony Express failed to get on the scoreboard for the second consecutive chukker.
MacDonough converted another pair of penalty shots in the fourth period while Criado added a goal from the field. Tomas Goti finally got Pony Express on the scoreboard again with a single goal, but Orchard Hill continued to dominate with an eight goal lead, 13-5.
Orchard Hill coasted through the final two chukkers allowing Pony Express to score five goals to make the score more palatable in the 14-10 romp.
Hector Galindo was named MVP while Pablo MacDonough’s 11-year-old brown Argentine mare, Puestera, received Best Playing Pony Honors.
Weather permitting; the finals of the 2010 US Open Championship are set for 3pm Sunday afternoon at the International Polo club. Audi, last year’s defending champion, will square off against a talented Crab Orchard side that has won the first two tournaments of the 26-goal season while suffering only one loss the winter-that loss, however, came at the hands of Audi.