Orchard Hill and ERG score wins in Saturday Ylvisaker Cup
action
By
Alex Webbe
At the end of the day, all fourteen teams competing in
the 2013 Ylvisaker Cup at the International Polo Club in Wellington had played,
with Orchard Hill and ERG joining the ranks of the unbeaten.
The opening Ylvisaker Cup match of the day got off to a
tentative start with neither team being able to score in the first seven
minutes of play despite runs up and down the field.
There were nearly three minutes gone in the second period
before Villa Del Lago’s Guille Aguero finally got them on the scoreboard for a
1-0 advantage. Paco de Narvaez tied it
up at 1-1 with less than two minutes left in the chukker, but a final goal from
Jared Zenni kept Villa Del Lago in front, 2-1 after the second period.
Zenni scored the first goal of the third chukker in the
first 19 seconds, and a goal from the field from Aguero had Villa Del Lago on
top, 4-1, less than three minutes into the period. De Narvaez closed out the
first half scoring with a penalty goal and Villa Del Lago left the field with a
two goal, 4-2 advantage at the end of the first half.
A renewed ERG team took the field in the second half,
taking immediately control of the game.
Four consecutive goals (Paco de Narvaez, Scott Wood, Jeff Blake and
Hector Galindo) had ERG in the lead, 5-4, before Villa Del Lago could
respond. A single goal from the field
from Magoo Laprida was answered with Jeff Blake’s second goal of the chukker
and after four periods of play ERG took the lead, 7-5.
Villa Del Lago was bent on revenge in the fifth, and
quickly made up for their lack of offense in the fourth. Goals from Laprida and Agustin Obregon had it
all even at 7-7 before de Narvaez put ERG back in the lead, 8-7. Fours got ERG in trouble in the final
two-and-a-half minutes of the chukker with Laprida converting three straight
penalty shots, With one chukker left in
regulation time, Villa Del Lago was up, 10-8.
De Narvaez led the ERG attack in the sixth chukker,
scoring his first goal of the period in the first 13 seconds of play. Just over a minute later de Narvaez tied it
up at 10-10, giving ERG the lead, 11-10, a minute later. Laprida converted a 40-yard penalty shot to
deadlock it at 11-11, but ERG wasn’t through.
Taking advantage of a Villa Del Lago foul, Blake converted a penalty
shot to put ERG ahead, 12-11 with one minute and thirty-eight seconds left in
regulation time. Villa Del Lago
continued to press, with Aguero scoring the tying goal, 12-12 in the waning
seconds to force sudden-death overtime.
After a brief intermission both teams returned to the
field with fresh mounts. Villa Del Lago
had the first run at goal, with the shot going wide. ERG knocked-in and de Narvaez carried the
ball down the field to score the winning goal.
De Narvaez was credited with eight goals (two penalty
conversions for goals) on the day, including the winning score in
overtime. Blake added three goals (one
on a penalty shot) and teammates Galindo and Wood each scored once. Laprida led the Villa Del Lago effort with
six goals (four on penalty shots). Aguero
scored three times; Zenni added two goals and Oregon scored a goal from the
field.
ORCHARD
HILL 13, VALIENTE 12
Valiente 10-goaler Pelon Stirling returned to the field
for Valiente for his first tournament match after suffering a cracked rib a
month ago and was rudely greeted by a determined Orchard Hill quartet as they
fell, 13-12.
Jeff Hall opened the scoring with a 40-yard penalty
conversion to give Orchard Hill the early 1-0 edge. Two goals from Stirling and a goal from the
field from Criado had it all even at 2-2 after the opening chukker.
A penalty conversion from Stirling gave Valiente a brief
3-2 advantage. Goals from the field from
Hall and Criado, however, erased the lead and had Orchard Hill in the lead, 4-3
after the second chukker.
Orchard Hill got a rhythm going in the third period, and
goals from Hector Galindo and Mason Wroe gave them a 6-3 lead. Stirling carried the ball nearly 200 yards
down the field for a Valiente score, 6-4.
Hal and Stirling exchanged penalty goals with Hall scoring the final
goal of the chukker with 18 seconds on the clock to put Orchard Hill ahead, 8-5
at the end of the first half.
The Valiente defense flexed its muscles in the fourth
chukker, shutting down the Orchard Hill attack but could manage only a pair of
penalty goals from Santi Torres. The
Orchard Hill lead had been slashed to a single goal, 8-7.
Action was fast and furious in the fifth period. Criado gave Orchard a two goal lead, 9-7,
with the opening foal of the chukker, but Valiente responded in kind. A penalty conversion from Stirling was
followed up by an 80-yard scoring shot through the goals posts for a 9-9
tie. Criado countered with a pair of
goals (one on a penalty shot) from Orchard Hill, 11-9. Valiente team captain bob Jornayvaz scored
from the field on a well-=placed pas from Stirling but Hall scored the final
goal of the game on a penalty shot to give Orchard Hill a two goal advantage,
12-10 with one chukker left to play.
Torres cut the Orchard Hill lead to a single goal, 12-11,
on a penalty conversion, but the score took over four minutes of the
seven-and-a-half minute chukker. Criado
tore away from the Valiente defenders in the final minute of the period to
score and give Orchard Hill a two goal advantage once again. Torres worked his way through the Orchard
Hill defenders to score the final goal of the game as time expired, and Orchard
Hill would ride away with the 13-12 victory.
Criado’s seven goals (one on a penalty shot) led the
Orchard Hill team. Hall added five
goals, three on penalty shots, and Wroe scored a goal for the win. Stirling scored three of his seven goals on
penalty conversions. Torres scored three
goals from the penalty line and one from the field and Jornayvaz added a goal
in the loss.
Ylvisaker Cup play continues on Sunday, February 3rd
with games at 10am, 1 and 3pm. Crab
Orchard (1-0) will battle Zacara (1-0) in the morning game with Coca-Cola (1-0)
and Port Mayaca (0-1) meeting one another at noon and Piaget (0-1) and Goose
Creek (0-1) facing off at 3pm.