Palm House to meet Audi in finals

Palm House to meet Audi in finals

By Alex Webbe

Palm House (Juancito Bollini, Guille Aguero, Kris Kampsen
and Scott Swerdlin) scored wins over ELG (Carlitos Gracida, Marc Ganzi, Nic
Roldan and Avery Chapman), 5-3; and Casablanca (Grant Ganzi, Leo Mandelbaum,
Mike Azzaro and Wes Finlayson), 4-2; in round-robin play to earn a berth in
Sunday’s finals of the 2013 USPA Fall Plates at the Grand Champions Polo Club
in Wellington.

Palm House got on the scoreboard first with a goal from the
field from Kris Kampsen.  ELG answered back
with a goal from Marc Ganzi for a first chukker 1-1 tie. 

Two more second chukker goals from Kampsen had Palm House in
the lead, 3-2.  Ganzi converted a penalty
shot for ELG’s only goal of the period.

Ganzi scored his third goal of the contest in the third and
last chukker of the mini-match with Palm House but single goals from Juancito
Bollini and Guille Aguero were enough to carry the team past ELG, 5-3.

ELG 5, CASABLANCA 2

ELG held the field for the next three chukkers, facing Casablanca
(Grant Ganzi, Leo Mandelbaum, Mike Azzaro and Wes Finlayson) and trying to get
on the winning track.

American 8-goaler Nic Roldan scored the first and only goal
of the opening chukker as ELG’s defense shut down Mike Azzaro and a talented
Casablanca lineup.  ELG entered the second
period with a 1-0 advantage.

Carlitos Gracida and Roldan each added single goals in the
second period followed by a score from Ganzi for a 4-1 lead.  Leo Mandelbaum scored the only goal of the
chukker for Casablanca as they trailed by three goals with only one period to
play.

Gracida and Azzaro exchanged goals in the final chukker as
ELG chalked up their first win of the day, 5-2, over a disorganized Casablanca
effort.

PALM HOUSE 4,
CASABLANCA 2

Palm House wrapped it up in the final three chukkers of the
day with a 4-2 win over Casablanca.

Wes Finlayson scored the first and only goal of the opening
chukker as both teams struggled finding the range on shots at goal.  Palm House came up empty-handed and trailed
1-0.

A second consecutive goal from Finlayson had Casablanca
ahead 2-0 in the opening minutes of the second period.  However, Juancito Bollini got on track,
scoring twice to tie it up for Palm House, 2-2.

Guille Aguero sealed the deal for Palm House, scoring twice
from the field for a 4-2 edge. 
Casablanca missed a number of scoring opportunities as they fell to Palm
House, 4-2.

The double win boosted Palm House into the Sunday finals
against Audi (Kaiser Maakar, Melissa Ganzi, Luis Escobar and Juan Bollini).  Beluga (Misha Rodzianko, Mariano Gracida, Brandon
Phillips and Joey Casey), and early loser to Audi in the tournament opener,
will join ELG and Casablanca in the consolation round-robin.