La Natividad and La Irenita Grand Champions Remain Undefeated in Argentine Open
Continuing action in the 129th Argentine Open at Palermo, La Natividad (Camilo Castagnola, Pablo Pieres, Bartolome Castagnola Jr., Ignatius Du Plessis) met La Hache Perpool (Juan Ruiz Guiñazu, Carlos Maria Ulloa, Santiago Cernadas, Joaquin Pittaluga), where a dominant offensive performance from La Natividad led by Castagnola with eleven goals sailed to the 21-5 win.
In the second match of Saturday’s doubleheader La Irenita Grand Champions (Juan Britos, Francisco Elizalde, Pablo Mac Donough, Juan Martin Zubia) faced La Ensenada RS Murus Sanctus (Facundo Sola, Alfredo Bigatti, Guillermo Caset, Jeronimo de Carril), as a balanced effort from La Irenita Grand Champions seized an early lead to stave off a La Ensenada RS Murus Sanctus comeback to earn the narrow 13-11 victory.
Seeking their first win of the tournament, La Hache Perpool was off to a quick start with two penalty conversions from Pittaluga, but La Irenita Grand Champions quickly took over offensive play featuring four unanswered goals from the Castagnola brothers to take a 5-2 lead. Following another score from Pittaluga in the field, Castagnola and Pieres combined for four more goals, as nine shots from the field and eight attempts at the line gave La Natividad a commanding 9-4 lead at the half.
Keeping the pressure on La Hache Perpool open the fifth, the Castagnola’s and Pieres went on another powerful unanswered run to post another six. Struggling to generate any offensive momentum with just two shots from the field, Ulloa finally managed to score La Hache Perpool’s lone goal since the fourth chukka. Going into the final frame with a thirteen-goal lead, Du Plessis became the fourth La Natividad player to reach the scoreboard, as Pieres brought the match to a close with another two for the 21-5 victory.
Reconvening on Field 1, Caset and Sola set the tone in open play to give La Ensenada RS Murus Sanctus a 4-0 advantage. Mounting a response in the second, La Irenita Grand Champions’ 10-goaler Mac Donough found space in the field to kick-start a shoutout third chukker with additions from Britos and Elizalde to tie the match 5-all. Keeping their momentum steady in the final chukka before the half, Britos, Elizalde and Zubia teamed-up to score three unanswered goals to give La Irenita Grand Champions the 8-5 edge at the break.
Outscoring La Irenita Grand Champions in the fifth, back-to-back goals from de Carril and Sola brought La Ensenada RS Murus Sanctus within two, but a crucial conversion from Britos in the sixth kept his team in the lead 10-7. Trading goals in the seventh, La Ensenada RS Murus Sanctus kick-started their late push in the final chukka of regulation with goals from de Carril and Caset to cut their deficit to one. Fending off their quickly evaporating lead, a drive from Zubia gave La Irenita Grand Champions some breathing room, but an immediate response from Sola kept his team in contention. Committing ten fouls in the match, La Ensenada’s RS Murus Sanctus’ final error sent Britos to the line to send his third conversion through the posts, as La Irenita Grand Champions held on for the 13-11 victory to claim the Johnnie Walker Cup.
Next Fixtures:
November 13
Ellerstina (1-0) vs La Esquina (0-2)
La Dolfina Saudi (1-0) vs Cria La Dolfina (2-0)
Photo Credit ©Matias Callejo/Prensa AAP