Valiente downs Crab Orchard, 11-10;Coca-Cola falls to Lechuza Caracas, 14-11
By Alex Webbe
Valiente (Bob Jornayvaz, Santi Torres, Sapo Caset and AdolfoCambiaso) controlled the first five chukkers of their USPA Piaget Gold Cupmatch against Crab Orchard (George Rawlings, Facundo Pieres, Magoo Laprida andMatias Magrini) Wednesday afternoon at the International Polo Club but needed apenalty goal from Sapo Caset in the final two minutes to secure the 11-10 win.
Sapo Caset scored the first goal of the game on a penaltyshot less than 90 seconds into play. Teammate Adolfo Cambiaso made it 2-0 with the only other goal of thechukker at the 4:28 mark with Crab Orchard unable to get on the scoreboard forthe duration of the chukker.
Second period play saw Cambiaso and Crab Orchard’s exchange singlegoals. Cambiaso scored midway through theperiod for a 3-0 Valiente advantage with Facundo Pieres splitting the Valientegoalposts with a shot from the field with just 29 seconds on the clock. Valiente continued to lead, 3-1.
Santi Torres opened the third chukker with a goal from thefield, 4-1, followed by a pair of penalty goals from Pieres, 4-3. Caset converted another penalty shot for agoal and Torres added another goal from the field with just 5 seconds left in thechukker. At the end of the first halfValiente held a respectable 6-3 lead.
Pieres and Caset swapped goals in the fourth period witheach scoring one from the field and one on a penalty conversion. After four chukkers of play, Valientemaintained their three goals lead, 8-5.
Caset opened the fifth chukker with a goal from the fieldjust 19 seconds into play, 9-5. Cambiasostretched the Valiente lead to five goals, 10-5, less than a minute later. Pieres staged a mini rally in the closingminutes of the period with a goal from the field at 3:13 followed by a penaltyconversion at 1:14. Valiente continuedto hold the three goal advantage, 10-7, with one chukker left to play.
Crab Orchard wasted little time chasing the leader. Three consecutive goals from Pieres rockedthe Valiente defense as they found themselves all even at 10-10 with 3:47 leftin regulation time. The Valiente attackpressed, causing a Crab Orchard foul at the 2:06 mark that sent Caset to the penaltyline where he converted the 30-yard shot for the win, 11-10.
Caset was credited with six goals for Valiente (four onpenalty conversions). Cambiaso scoredthree times and Torres added two goals in the victory. Pieres scored all ten of Crab Orchard’sgoals, with four of them coming on penalty shots.
The win evened the Valiente record at 1-1 while it was thesecond loss for Crab Orchard, 0-2, against no wins.
LECHUZA CARACAS 14,COCA-COLA 11
In the second Piaget Gold Cup match of the day, LechuzaCaracas (Victor Vargas, Nico Pieres, Juan Martin Nero and Nico Espain) recordeda demonstrative 14-11 win over Coca-Cola (Gillian Johnston, Sebastian Merlos,Julio Arellano and Facundo Obregon) with Nico Pieres leading the way with sixgoals.
A conservative start to the match had Nico Pieres andFacundo Obregon trading penalty goals for a 1-1 beginning. Pieres scored first, just over a minted intothe opening chukker (6:24). Obregon scoredon a penalty shot of his own three minutes later (3:21) for the 1-1 tie.
Lechuza Caracas exploded for four goals in the secondchukker while limiting the Coca-Cola offense to a single goal from team captainGillian Johnston. Lechuza Caracas recordedsingle goals from Juan Martin Nero and Pieres (penalty goal) with Nico Espainscoring twice form the field for the 5-2 edge.
Nero added two penalty goals to the Lechuza Caracas total inthe third. American 9-galer JulioArellano scored his first goal of the day from the field with Obregon ending thechukker with a goal at the 2:07 point. At the end of the first half of play, Lechuza Caracas sat astride a 7-4lead.
Pieres converted a 40-yard penalty shot to open the secondhalf, 8-4, but Coca-Cola fired right back. A pair of penalty goals by Obregon closed out the chukker with Coca-Colatrailing by just two goals, 8-6.
Obregon opened the scoring in the fifth chukker in style,converting a 150 yard penalty shot, cutting the Lechuza Caracas lead to asingle goal, 8-7. Pieres scored hisfourth goal of the game to put Lechuza Caracas up by two goals, 9-7, but Johnstonresponded with a goal for Coca-Cola to cut the lead back to one, 9-8. A penalty by Coca-Cola in their goal mouthhad the officials awarding Lechuza Caracas a goal, 10-8, and throwing the ballin ten yards from the Coca-Cola goal. The ensuing throw-in resulted in another Lechuza Caracas goal by Nero fora chukker-ending 11-8 advantage.
Coca-Cola scored the opening goal of the final chukker with SebastianMerlos scoring from the field, 11-9. Neroand Obregon exchanged goals for a 12-10. A pair of goals from Pieres (one on a penalty conversion) had LechuzaCaracas in front by four goals, 14-10, with Merlos scoring the final goal ofthe game in a 14-11 Lechuza Caracas victory.
Pieres scored four of his six goals on penalty shots. Nero added five goals (two on penaltyconversions), and Espain scored twice. The team also received one goal on a penalty. Obregon scored six times for Coca-Cola (fouron penalty shots). Johnston and Merlosscored two goals each and Arellano was held to a single goal in the loss.
Gold Cup action is scheduled to continue on Thursday with a10am game between Audi (Marc Ganzi, Gonzalito Pieres, Rodrigo Andrade andGonzalo Del Tour) and Flight Options (Eduardo Astrada, Miguel Astrada andAlejandro Astrada) followed by a 1pm meeting of Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel,Santiago Chavanne, Pablo MacDonough and Matias MacDonough) and Alegria (JulianMannix, Clemente Zavaleta, Mariano Aguerre and Hilario Ulloa).