Longfield wins 2014 Rocky MountainOpen Championship
By Alex Webbe
La Karina (Brian Boyd, Carlitos Gracida, Santiago Wulff andStuart Armstrong) exploded for four unanswered first chukker goals against Longfield(Hannah Buchan, Melissa Ganzi, Miguel Novillo Astrada and Juan Bollini) in theopening chukker of the final of the 2014 Rocky Mountain Open Championship, butwere unable to stave off a second half rally that carried Longwood to a 13-12win Sunday afternoon at the Aspen Valley Polo Club.
Carlitos Gracida opened the scoring for La Karina followedby a goal from Stuart Armstrong and two goals from Santiago Wulff, 4-0 while ashell-shocked Longfield team struggled to find any offensive punch.
Miguel Novillo Astrada converted a pair of penalty shots forgoals in the second and Juan Bollini added another Longfield goal to cut thelead to 5-3. La Karina added another goalfrom the field from Wulff.
La Karina got two more goals from Wulff in the thirdchukker, and a single goal from Armstrong. Astrada converted two more penalty shots for Longfield, but it was LaKarina with the 8-5 halftime lead.
Defenses were prominent in the fourth period. Astrada converted another penalty shot for agoal for Longfield, 8-6, but La Karina got it back on a goal from Brian Boyd. La Karina held on to their three goal lead,9-6.
Foul trouble continued to plague La Karina, with Astradachipping away at their lead. Three morepenalty conversions by Astrada in the fifth were bolstered by a goal from the fieldfrom Hannah Buchan. La Karina was heldto a single goal from Gracida and watched Longfield tie it up at 10-10.
Sixth chukker action witnessed Astrada open the chukker withhis ninth penalty conversion of the day for Longfield’s first lead of the day,11-10. Wulff responded for La Karinawith a penalty shot that leveled the score at 11-11. Buchan’s second goal of the game putLongfield back on top, 12-11, but La Karina wasn’t through. Wulff’s seventh goal of the game deadlockedit at 12-12 with time running out. Anunfortunate foul by a La Karina player sent Astrada to the penalty line onceagain where he converted the shot for the exciting 13-12 win.
Astrada scored all ten of his goals on penalty shots forLongfield and was named MVP for his efforts. Buchan added a pair of goals and Bollini scored once for thevictory. Wulff led the La Karina attackwith seven goals. Gracida and Armstrongscored two goals each and Boyd added a goal in the loss.
Diva, a five-year-old Bay Thoroughbred Mare was named Best Playing Pony. Diva is owned by Halo Polo and was played by Miguel Novillo Astrada.
Los Amigos 9,KIG/Aspen Valley 6
A balanced Los Amigos attack (Paul Foster/Alejandra Foster,Gabriel Crespo, Lucas Lalor and Brian Middleton) got off to a slow start butcharged back into the game in the second half to record a 9-6 win overKIG/Aspen Valley polo (Bash Kazi, Marc Ganzi, Nic Roldan and Alejandro Gonzalez) in the consolation match of the Rocky Mountain Open.
Brian Middleton scored the opening goal of the game for LosAmigos, but goals from Bash Kazi and Marc Ganzi gave the early lead to KIG/AspenValley, 2-1.
Alejandro Gonzalez made it 3-1 with the only goal of thesecond period, and a goal from Kazi in the third put KIG/Aspen Valley in thelead, 4-1 at the end of the first half.
A pair of goals from the field from Gabriel Crespo and apenalty goal from Alejandra Roster tied it at 4-4 at the end of the fourth.
Lucas Lalor put Los Amigos in the lead with his first goalof the game in the fifth chukker, 5-4. Nic Roldan tied it at 5-5 with his first score of the day. Alejandra Foster put Los Amigos on top, 6-5,with her second goal of the match to end the fifth period.
Roldan tied the score one last time with the opening goal ofthe sixth chukker, but from then on it was all Los Amigos. Two goals from Lalor and a goal from Middletoncarried Los Amigos to the 9-6 victory.
Lalor led the Los Amigos attack with three goals. Crespo, Middleton and Alejandra Foster scoredtwo goals apiece for the win. Kazi and Roldan scored two goals each for KIG/AspenValley. Ganzi and Gonzalez added singlegoals in the loss.