Lucchese, Mansour and Audi score
opening wins
By Alex Webbe
In the first
day of competition for the 2011 bombardier Pacific Coast Open at the Santa
Barbara Polo Club, Lucchese opened its defense of its 2010 title by defeating
Piaget 11-10 in exciting fashion.
Piaget
charged onto the field in the opening chukker with its new alignment that saw
Argentine 9-goaler Miguel Astrada leading the team from the Number 3 position
in place of Lolo Castagnola (8). Jason
Crowder scored the first goal of the game followed by a single goal from
teammate Juan Bollini. The Piaget
defense held solid in the opening seven minutes of play, shutting out Adolfo
Cambiaso and company for a 2-0 first chukker lead.
Lucchese
turned the tables on Piaget in the second period, picking up single goals from
Cambiaso and Julio Gracida while holding Piaget scoreless. After two chukkers
of play, the score was all even at 2-2.
Jeff Blake
scored twice in the third, and Gracida added a goal from the field as Lucchese
caught Piaget napping, moving ahead, 5-2.
Two missed 40-yard penalty shots
by Lucchese early on limited the damage to Piaget. Astrada got his team back on track, however,
picking up a pair of goals on a 60-yard penalty conversion and a goal from the
field. Lucchese continued to lead, but
by a single goal, 5-4, at the end of the first half.
Melissa
Ganzi tied it up for Piaget with her first goal of the game in the fourth to
make it 5-5, but Cambiaso responded with a go-ahead goal for Lucchese. Astrada evened it up again at 6-6, but
Cambiaso managed to wrestle the lead back with a closing goal for Lucchese. Piaget
missed a golden opportunity but missed a pair of penalty shots. After
four periods of play, Lucchese continued to lead, but had Piaget breathing down
its neck.
Crowder’s
second goal on the day tied it again at 7-7 to open the fifth chukker, but Blake
made the tie short-lived as he scored twice from the field for Lucchese. Astrada’s single goal ended the period,
cutting the Lucchese back to a single goal, 9-8.
Cambiaso tried
to wrap it up in the sixth chukker, converting a penalty shot for a goal and
adding another from the field, but Piaget still had some fight left in it. Astrada countered with a pair of goals (one
on a penalty shot) to bring his team close, but time ran out on the rally and
Lucchese rode off with the hard-fought 11-10 victory.
Astrada led
all scoring with six goals. Crowder
scored twice and Ganzi and Bollini added single goals.
Cambiaso
scored five times for Lucchese. Blake added
four and Gracida was credited with a pair of goals in the win.
MANSOUR 14, ERG 13
With the
super-star player swap (Lolo Castagnola for Miguel Astrada), Mansour lined up
with the USPA’s newest 10-goaler, Sapo Caset, at the Number 3 position and got
immediate results from it.
In a penalty
riddled match that saw thirty fouls called and six red flags pulled (all
against ERG), Mansour managed to outlast ERG for a narrow 14-13 win.
Paco de
Narvaez scored the first goal of the game but Caset quickly righted the ship by
converting a pair of penalty shots for goals.
Castagnola scored his first goal of the game to end the first chukker
with ERG trailing 3-1.
De Narvaez opened
the second chukker with a goal from the field and added another following a
goal from Castagnola. Caset scored the
final two goals of the frame for a 6-3 Mansour lead.
ERG rallied
in the third with de Narvaez scoring on a 60-yard penalty shot followed by a
well-placed scoring goal from the field to bring ERG to within a goal,
6-5. Caset gave Mansour a little
breathing room just before halftime with his fifth goal of the game. After three chukkers of play, Mansour left
the field with a 7-5 halftime advantage.
Caset added
two more goals in the fourth and Castagnola scored for the third time to offset
single goals from Merlos and de Narvaez.
Mansour took a handsome 10-7 lead into the fifth period.
ERG launched
an all-out attack in the fifth, with Mansour fouls allowing Merlos to convert
three penalty shots for goals. De
Narvaez added a goal to the pot, but a pair of goals kept Mansour ahead by a single
goal, 12-11.
Merlos tied
it up at 12-12 to open the final chukker, but fouls proved to be ERG’s
undoing. Caset made good on two penalty
shots for a 14-12 lead, and despite a last minute goal from Merlos, it was
Mansour that took the game, 14-13.
Caset
scorched the posts for eleven goals on the day.
Castagnola added three in the win.
De Narvaez scored seven times for ERG.
Merlos added six in a valiant effort.
AUDI 17, GRANTS FARM 14
Whether it
was a case of one-upsmanship (following Caset’s eleven goal performance
earlier) or just the fact that Audi operated like a well-oiled machine Thursday
afternoon, 10-goaler Gonzalito Pieres scored thirteen goals as Audi drove over
Grants Farm 17-14 for a first round win in the 2011 bombardier Pacific Coast
Open.
Nothing came
easy for Audi despite Carlitos Gracida scoring the opening goal as the teams
battled to a 3-3 first half tie. Audi
added a pair of 60-yard penalty shots from Pieres while Grants Farm got two
penalty goals from Nic Roldan and a goal from the field from Jeff hall.
Roldan added
two more goals in the second (penalty conversions) and got another goal from
Hall while holding Audi to a pair of goals from Pieres. Grants Farm had fought its way back into the
game and taken a 6-5 lead after the opening two chukkers of play.
Three more
Grants Farm goals (two from Hall, one from Roldan) had Audi trailing by four
goals, 9-5 before they started to peck away at the lead. Attack after attack was turned aside by
Grants Farm, but defensive efforts resulted in penalties, and Pieres made good
on all three of them. The first half
ended with Grants Farm guarding a narrow 9-8, one goal lead.
Carlos
Gracida tied it up in the fourth with his first goal of the game, 9-9, but
Roldan converted a 60-uard penalty shot to give the lead back to Grants Farm,
10-9. Nick Morrison put the ball between
the goals post to extend the Grants Farm lead to two goals, 11-9, but Pieres
cut it back to a one goal lead, 11-10, with his eighth goal of the day.
Hall gave
Grants Farm two more goals in the fifth, but Pieres answered with a pair of
penalty goals and a goal from the field.
After five chukkers of play the score stood all even at 13-13.
Audi wasted
little time in demonstrating its superiority in the final chukker. Three straight goals (two from Pieres, one
from Carlos Gracida) had Audi carrying a three goal lead, 16-13 before Grants
Farm could respond. Roldan’s seventh
goal of the game was all the offense Grants Farm could muster in the final
chukker as young Carlitos Gracida ended the scoring in the 17-14 Audi victory.
Pieres set
the scoring record for the day with thirteen goals. Carlos Gracida and son Carlitos Gracida scored
two goals apiece in the win.
Roldan
accounted for seven goals for Grants Farm.
Hall added six and Morrison added a single goal.
Bombardier
Pacific Coast Open action continues on Sunday with Lucchese (1-0) facing ERG in
the 10AM opener. Grants Farm (0-1) will
face Piaget (0-1) at 1PM with Audi (1-0) and Mansour doing battle at 3PM.