La Dolfina wins, 18-7, Stirling injured; La Aguada upsets Alegria, 22-17
By Alex Webbe
The thundering 18-7 win by La Dolfina (Adolfo Cambiaso, Pelon Stirling, Pablo MacDonough and Juan Martin Nero) over Magual (Alejandro Muzzio, Francisco Elizalde, Marco Di Paola and Santiago Toccalino) in the opening round of play in the 2015 Argentine Open Championship at Palermo may have been a costly one. Although La Dolfina dominated from the early chukkers and coasted to an 18-7 win, 10-goaler Pelon Stirling suffered a blow to the hand in the final minute of the seventh chukker and was forced to leave the game, being replaced by Brazilian 8-goaler, Rodrigo Andrade.
After a competitive first chukker that had La Dolfina leading by a single goal, 3-2, they outscored Magual 7-2 over the ensuing three periods for a 10-4 halftime lead. The defending champion looked unstoppable despite a Valiente effort put up by the 31-goal Magual foursome.
La Dolfina put up four unanswered goals in the fifth chukker for a 14-4 lead and then sailed through the final three periods for the 18-7 win.
The only downside of the Monday game for La Dolfina was the fact that Pelon Stirling was hit in the hand with a mallet in the final minute of play in the seventh chukker and was forced to leave the game. Replaced by Brazilian 8-goaler, Rodrigo Andrade.
Adolfo Cambiaso scored four of his game high seven goals on penalty conversions, and scored his 800th goal at Palermo (ended the day with a total of 805 goals scored) as the leading scorer in the history of the Argentine Open). Pablo MacDonough added five goals with Stirling and Nero accounting for three goals apiece. Santiago Toccalino led the Magual offense with five goals (one on a penalty shot). Francisco Elizalde scored the other two goals in the loss.
La Aguada 22, Alegria 17
La Aguada (Agustín Merlos, Guillermo Terrera, Sapo Caset and Ignacio Novillo Astrada) surprised a complacent Alegria polo team (Magoo Laprida, Hilario Ulloa, Lucas Monteverde and Fred Mannix) later in the afternoon as they scored the first two goals of the game before running up an 8-2 lead after the second chukker. Behind the talented play of Hilario Ulloa, Alegria scored seven goals over the next two chukkers and cut the La Aguada lead back to two goals, 11-9, at the end of the first half.
Play leveled off in the fifth and sixth chukkers with each team scoring a pair of goals in the fifth and Alegria coming within a goal of the lead, 15-14, after outscoring La Aguada 3-2 in the sixth.
The La Aguada attack got back on track in the seventh period as they scored four times while holding Alegria without a goal. La Aguada extended their lead to five goals, 19-14. Alegria struggled to make up ground in the final period but La Aguada matched them goal for goal and ended the match with a comfortable 22-17 victory.
Agustin Merlos scored six of his 11 goals on penalty conversions. Sapo Caset added six goals and Guillermo Terrera was credited with five. Hilario Ulloa wound up with a game high 13 goals (eight on penalty conversions). Magoo Laprida accounted for the remaining four goals in a losing effort.
Argentine Open play will continue on Tuesday, November 24th with Ellerstina (Polito Pieres, Nico Pieres, Gonzalito Pieres and Facundo Pieres) facing Washington (Diego Cavanagh, Ezequiel M. Ferrario, Facundo Sola and Alfredo Cappella) in a 2pm encounter followed by a match between Chapaleufú (Pepe Heguy, Nachi Heguy, Bautista Heguy and Eduardo Heguy) and La Aguada/ Las Monjitas (Ignacio Toccalino, Pite Merlos, Eduardo N. Astrada Jr. and Alejandro Novillo Astrada) at 4:30pm.