2nd Round of the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open 2012

2nd Round of the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open 2012

This past Sunday at Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club we had the second round of the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open. As to be expected from such a prestigious tournament the stands were packed and the play was extremely exciting. In the 1pm game Farmers and Merchants Bank took on Grants Farm in a game that had high stakes for both teams. If Farmers and Merchants won they would be right in the center of the mix to make the finals with a 1 win 1 loss record and if Grants Farm won they would be in the fast lane to the finals with a 2 wins no loss record. 

With these stakes being as they were it was no surprise that the game started out with a bang, with both teams combing for 7 goals in the first chukker alone. Going into the second chukker the score was 4-3 in favor of Farmers and Merchants Bank but then the Achilles heel of Farmers and Merchants Bank began to show, in the form of open goal penalties and after making four penalties of fourty yards or less Grants Farm found themselves ahead 7-6 going into half time. In the second half it was unfortunately more of the same for Farmers and Merchants Bank with every comeback they would mount being thwarted by penalty conversions from Grants Farm. However at the end of the fifth chukker it looked as if Farmers and Merchants might just get the break they needed for their comeback by getting a goal late and having momentum going into the last chukker. But after a great fight in the last chukker the theme of penalties came back to haunt Farmers and Merchants once again and after two more open goal penalty conversions Grants Farm came out on top by a score of 14 to 12. The high scorer honors for the game went to Jeff Hall for his 11 goals (all of which came from the penalty line). 

Then in the 3pm game the stakes were even higher since after the result of the first game Lucchese knew that a win would guarantee them a birth in the finals and Mansour knew a loss meant they were out.  In the first chukker the game started out relatively slow with each team only scoring 1 goal, but then in the second chukker the teams started to pick up the scoring with each team answering the other stride for stride, and after the dust settled Lucchese claimed a 4-3 lead going to the third. In the third chukker Lucchese started to establish themselves by increasing their lead from 1 to 3 and taking a 7 to 4 lead into the half. After halftime it looked like Lucchese had smelled blood in water because they came out firing and were able to expand upon their lead even more to go up 10-5 heading into the last two chukkers. However just as people were getting ready to head to the exits Mansour suddenly came to life and were able to get some late goals and decrease the Lucchese lead to a manageable three goals going into the last chukker. Then in the last chukker Mansour brought the best horses out to try and save their final hopes and hand Lucchese a loss in similar fashion to the loss Lucchese gave them during the finals of the Piaget Silver Cup. But after getting to within in one Mansour was thwarted in their plans by a goal from Andres Weisz that sealed their fate with final score being Lucchese 12 Mansour 10. The high scorer of the game was Hilario Ulloa with 7 goals. Next weekend we will be having the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open Finals on Sunday at 2pm and the Western Badge and Trophy Finals on Saturday at 11 am so make sure you come out since this is your last chance to catch high goal action for 2012!