USPA Presidents Cup – 8 Goal Tournament
Mansour maintained their perfect record in the 8 goal, winning a tough game against China Beach 11-9 this past Sunday in the USPA Presidents Cup 8 goal tournament.
China Beach jumped out to an early lead, getting two goals on handicap and a field goal from Matt Walker, while holding Mansour scoreless in the first chukker. Mansour capitilized on penalty shots to catch up in the second chukker, the teams traded goals after that to go into halftime with the score tied 5-5. In the 4th chukker, the China Beach defenders were double teaming the Mansour pros, leaving Benji and Ben Soleimani open. The Soleimani brother took advantage of this and Benji scored two field goals and Ben one, helping Mansour take the lead for the first time in the game. Mansour never looked back, holding a two goal lead for the rest of the game. China Beach made them work for every goal though, as Matt Walker and Henry Walker pressured the Mansour team hard until the last horn sounded.
Matt Walker’s horse Vick, bred by his mother Linda Walker, was named Best Playing Pony. Santiago von Wernich, who was the only player on his team to score in the first half and made a lot of good plays on defense, was awarded MVP.
Earlier in the day Nacho Figueras, in his first visit to Santa Barbara, played an exhibition game with the players that did not make the Presidents Cup final, with the teams rearranged to make a 10 goal match. Figueras, well known for his modeling, showed he was more then just a pretty face, leading his Gehache/ Homewood team to victory 8-5 over Beverly Hills Institute. In a fast paced, open game, the scoring was spread around between all the players, but the three goals Justin Klentner made in the first chukker for Gehache/ Homewood proved to be the margin of victory.
At halftime of the exhibition game, Figueras spoke to the attentive crowd about his life, his career as a polo player and model, and about his dream of bringing back the glory days of polo, when crowds of twenty thousand people would attend polo games, then did a short demonstration of the basic polo shots. As several fans spoke with Figueras after that, many could be heard to say this was their first time to watch a polo game, proving that Nacho is accomplishing his goal of bringing in new fans to the sport!