By Jorge Andrades
In two boring A zone matches for the fourth day of the 116th edition of the Hurlingham Open, Alegrìa surprised Pilara Piaget beating them 18-10 and then La Aguada edged Chapa Uno 10-8.
Therefore, with a triumph over Pilara Piaget next Sunday, the last Champions -which are unbeaten (+8)- will reach the final of the tournament; otherwise, if they lose and Alegria ( +2) gains against Chapa Uno by a wide margin of goals, the team which entered trough qualifying matches still have chances to decide the championship against the winner of the 80 goals match between La Dolfina and Ellerstina.. Meanwhile, Pilara Piaget is almost eliminated and Chapa Uno, with two defeats, is out of the competence. As said, Alegria surprised Pilara Piaget from the start, taking a 4-0 leading margin in the first chukker and did never abandon it to gain the match without any problems. Unexpectedly the losers, who played their worst match since they entered the high handicap competence in 2008, lacked of reaction and resigned their chances in the tournament. Besides, they lost Marcos Heguy who hit himself against a goalpost and fell from his horse in the second period when scoring a goal. Despite being injured, the back continued playing up to the fifth period when he was not able to continue and had to be replaced by Marcelo Frayssinett. Without the two 10 goals players on the field ( Agustin Merlos is suspended), Pilara was a shadow of the great team they used to be. On the other side, Juan Ignacio Merlos, who scored 8 field goals for his squad, demonstrated his skills with the ball and as a play maker, shining in the midfield and as a forward and leading his team mates –who yesterday played over their own handicaps- to a great victory. The second match resulted mediocre, without many goals but with many stoppages as a result of the continuous fouls. By winning 3-0 the fourth and the eight chukkers, La Aguada decided a difficult encounter where they hardly ever could find their rhythm. In fact, Chapa Uno dominated the actions and did things better during most of the time, but the losers missed many penalties which could have given them the triumph. A proof of that was the fact that except Ulloa, the rest of his team mates hit at least one penalty without netting them in most of the occasions. According with the image they showed yesterday, if the Novillo Astrada brothers win their zone –what is very probably- they will have to improve their game if they want to retain the title against La Dolfina or Ellerstina… TEAMS: AlegrÃa (18): Frederick Mannix jr.6, Francisco Bensadón 8, Juan I. Merlos 9, Luke Tomlinson 8. Total 31. Pilará Piaget (10) : Lucas James 7, Santiago Chavanne 8, Sebastián Merlos 9, Marcos Heguy 10 ( injured, replaced by Marcelo Frayssinet 7, in the end of the fifht chukker). Total 34. Chukker scores: Alegria 4-0, 6-2, 8-3, 11-5, 15-5, 16-6, 17-8, 18-10. Scorers: AlegrÃa: Frederick Mannix jr.2, Francisco Bensadón 5-1 pen, Juan I. Merlos 8, Luke Tomlinson 3 pen. Pilará Piaget: Santiago Chavanne 4-1 pen, Sebastián Merlos 5, Marcos Heguy 1 La Aguada (10) : Javier Novillo Astrada 9, Eduardo Novillo Astrada jr 9, Miguel Novillo Astrada 10, Ignacio Novillo Astrada 9. Total 37. Chapa Uno (8) : Rodrigo Ribeiro de Andrade 8, Hilario Ulloa 8, Bautista Heguy 9, Francisco de Narváez jr. 9. Total 34. Chukker scores: La Aguada: 0-1, 1-3, 2-4, 5-4, 6-5, 6-6, 7-8, 10-8. |