Crab Orchard Sweeps High-Goal Season!
By Alex Webbe
With Crab Orchard’s 13-8 win over Audi in the finals of the 2010 United States Open Championship Sunday afternoon at the International Polo Club in Wellington, it became the first team to will all three trophies in the same season.
It was in 2007 that Crab Orchard won both the U. S. Open and the Gold Cup; and White Birch won the US Open and the Whitney Cup in 2005, but the /Gold Cup was played in Aiken, South Carolina that year, and without a White Birch entry, the honors went to Fred Mannix and his Millerville team. Audi won the C. V. Whitney and the U. S. Open last year, but couldn’t hold it together for the Piaget Gold Cup win and had to settle for two-thirds of the Triple Crown.
The accomplishment achieved by Crab Orchard during the season was Herculean in its efforts and accomplishments, and a fitting reward for the time and investment made in the team by George and Beverly Rawlings.
Wellington resident Julio Arellano put an exclamation on the last game of the high-goal season with three goals in the final chukker in a game in which they never trailed.
The fourth game of the season between the two titans, the Open final, was greeted with great anticipation by a hearty crowd that gathered under cloudy and threatening skies.
Crab Orchard won their first two encounters with a 10-7 win in the C. V. Whitney and an embarrassing 18-11 romp over Audi in the Piaget Gold Cup, but that was where it ended.
In their divisional meeting in the US Open, Audi moved 10-goaler Facundo Pieres from the Number 4 position, at the back of the lineup, to the Number 2 position at the front end of its attack. The adjustment resulted in nine goals from Facundo, including the overtime penalty conversion that resulted in the 14-13 Audi win.
This Sunday, however, belonged to Crab Orchard as they took an early 3-1 lead after the first chukker, and never trailed.
Facundo Pieres cut the lead to a single goal with a penalty conversion at the start of the second period, but goals by Adolfo Cambiaso and Arellano took them into the third with a 5-2 advantage.
Again, Audi responded with a goal from Gonzalo Pieres to open the third chukker, but ensuing goals from Hilario Ulloa and Arellano ended the first half with Crab Orchard on top of a 7-3 score.
The Audi continued to attack in the fourth chukker, but a resilient Crab Orchard turned aside one drive after another. Audi got on the scoreboard with a pair of penalty goals from Facundo Pieres, cutting the lead to two goals, but Crab Orchard returned the favor with an Arellano penalty conversion to end the period riding an 8-5 lead.
The pace picked up in the fifth, with Facundo Pieres scoring the first goal of the period on a well-directed 70-yard shot for a goal. Ulloa responded with a goal from the field for Crab Orchard before Audi team captain Marc Ganzi barreled one through from over 80-yards. With just 22 seconds left in the chukker, Ulloa fought his way through a crowd in front of the Audi goal and scored his third goal of the day to end the period. Crab Orchard rode off the field to change mounts with a 10-7 lead and just seven-and-a-half minutes to play.
Arellano scored in the first 25 seconds of the sixth chukker, followed by a goal from Audi’s Inaki Laprida just over a minute later, but Crab Orchard remained in control of the game.
With 4:45 left to play, Arellano converted a penalty shot for a goal and a 12-8 lead. Audi continued to try and organize an effective attack, but couldn’t get any momentum to their less than organized effort.
Arellano scored the final goal of the game on a great run that had his initial shot hit the left goalpost. The ball bounced off, and at speed, while galloping past the ball, he tapped it through for the 13-8 final.