Hawks soar; Las Monjitas win in Piaget Gold Cup
By Alex Webbe
On one of the sunniest Sundays of the season and before over 3,800 cheering spectators, Freddy Mannix and his Hawks polo team downed Piaget 16-7 in the opening round of play in the 2010 USPA Piaget Gold Cup at the International Polo Club in Wellington.
Piaget, returning a team to the high-goal competition for the first time in over 25 years came up short as a well-coordinated Hawk attack seemed to score at will throughout the six chukker contest.
Piaget received one goal by handicap in the prestigious tournament sponsored by the Swill watchmaker, but struggled to get any offense going, as the Hawks charged out to a comfortable 8-4 halftime lead with team captain Freddy Mannix scoring five of the goals himself.
“They’re a very well polished team,†offered Piaget 9-goaler Nick Roldan, “and we just couldn’t get anything to click for us today.â€
Ten-goaler Mariano Aguerre orchestrated the Hawks’ attack, scoring four times himself in the lopsided bout as every member of the Hawk’s lineup got on the scoreboard.
The Hawks shut out Piaget in the fourth chukker while getting single goals from Aguerre and Freddy Mannix. Piaget was held to a single goal on a penalty conversion from Castagnola, as the Hawk’s attack continued. Julian Mannix and Aguerre each added a pair of goals as the Hawks left the field after five chukkers on the winning end of a 14-5 score.
The Hawks continued its assault on the Piaget goal in the final chukker. Goals from Julian Mannix and Pancho Bensadon gave the Hawks a 16-5 advantage with Piaget’s Lolo Castagnola scoring the last two goals of the match for the final 16-7 score.
Eighteen-year-old Julian Mannix scored three goals on the day and was named MVP, Mariano Aguerre’s eight-year-old Chestnut Argentine gelding received Best Playing Pony honors.
LAS MONJITAS 12, BENDABOUT/WANDERERS 10
In earlier Piaget Gold Cup action, Las Monjitas (1-0) scored a 12-10 win over the Bendabout/Wanders (0-1) entry in the 2010 USPA Piaget Gold Cup with Argentine 9-goaler Javier Novillo Astrada scoring five goals in the winning effort.
With Las Monjitas team captain Camilo Bautista still sidelined with a back injury, the Astrada brothers (Eduardo, Javier and Alejandro) took the field with fourteen-year-old Geronimo Obregon.
The twenty-four-goal Bendabout team received two goals by handicap to start the game, but it served as little deterrence to Las Monjitas as 10-goaler Eduardo Astrada quickly evened the score with a pair of goals from the field.
Penalty goals from Bendabout’s Jeff Hall and 9-goaler Mike Azzaro were answered by a single goal from Javier Astrada, and Bendabout held on to a narrow 4-3 lead after two periods of play.
Las Monjitas took the lead in the third chukker getting a pair of goals from Javier Astrada and a goal from teammate Eduardo Astrada. Sugar Erskine scored the final goal of the chukker, but Las Monjitas rode off the field with a 6-5 halftime lead.
Goals from Obregon and Javier Astrada in the fourth period put Las Monjitas up, 8-5. Hall converted a penalty shot for Bendabout, and the chukker ended with Bendabout trailing 8-6.
Bendabout got fifth chukker goals from Erskine, Hall and Azzaro, but a pair of goals from Alejandro “negro†Astrada kept Las Monjitas in the lead by a narrow 10-9 score.
American 9-goaler Mike Azzaro opened up the final chukker with a well-placed goal shot that tied it up at 10-10, but Las Monjitas wasn’t quite through. A goal from the field by Javier Astrada was followed by a penalty conversion from Alejandro Astrada, and the game was over with Las Monjitas the owners of a 12-10 victory.
USPA Piaget Gold Cup action will continue with two games scheduled for Wednesday at the International Polo Club at 10:30 am, between Lechuza (1-0) and Audi (0-1); followed by a 3 pm contest featuring Valiente (0-1) and Crab Orchard (1-0).