Valiente wins in overtime; ERG wins with 42 seconds on
the clock
By Alex Webbe
With the 2013 Maserati U. S. Open
Championship building to a crescendo at the International Polo Club in
Wellington, the teams are pulling out all the stops in an effort to reach the
finals of America’s most prestigious tournament.
In Sunday’s action, Adolfo Cambiaso scored
the winning goal in the first twelve seconds of overtime to lift Valiente to an
exciting 13 to 12 win over Zorzal in front of over five thousands cheering
spectators. Just two hours earlier ERG’s
Paco de Narvaez scored the winning goal with just 42 seconds on the clock to
beat Audi 11-10 as the competition intensifies on the road to the US Open
finals.
Valiente team captain Bob Jornayvaz scored
the first goal of the game in the opening minute of play on a beautiful setup
pass from Adolfo Cambiaso, but the Zorzal defense shutout the powerful Valiente
offense for the next five minutes of play.
Santi Torres finally broke through to score the final goal of the
chukker with just 1:15 left to play for a 2-0 start.
Ten-goaler Pelon Stirling got credit for the
opening goal of the second chukker in a flubbed defensive move by Mannix, and
the Valiente lead grew to three goals, 3-0.
Jason Crowder found himself on the end of a well-placed hit by Mannix
less than three minutes into the second and finally got Zorzal on the
scoreboard, 3-1. Mariano
Gonzalez closed out the scoring in the chukker with his first goal of the game
and cut the Valiente lead to a single goal, 3-2.
Cambiaso and Gonzalez exchanged penalty goals to open the
third period, 4-3. Stirling walked the
ball through the goalposts to make it 5-3, but goals from Crowder and Gonzalez
tied it up at 5-5. Cambiaso took the
lead back for Valiente with a goal in the final 18 seconds of the chukker. At the end of the first half Valiente was
holding on to a narrow 6-5 advantage over a talented Zorzal foursome.
The pace continued to quicken and the temper of the game
became more intense as the second half got underway. Miserly defenses on both sides held the
scoring to a single score from Mannix just 13 seconds into the fourth
chukker. With two chukkers left in
regulation time, the game was all even at 6-6.
Mannix scored off of a penalty shot just
twelve seconds into the fifth chukker give Zorzal their first lead f the match,
7-6, and a goal lest than a minute later extended the Zorzal lead to two goals,
8-6. Torres scored with five minutes
left in the period to cut the lead to a single goal, 8-7, and with 1:21 left in
the fifth, Jornayvaz tied it up at 8-8.
Gonzalez converted a 40-yard penalty shot to end the chukker with
Valiente trailing, 9-8.
Cambiaso scored in the opening seconds of the
sixth chukker on a beautiful pass from teammate Stirling to tie it up again,
9-9. A hard bump send Gonzalez to the
penalty line where he converted a shot for the goal and an anemic 10-9
advantage. Another goal from the field
from Gonzalez had Zorzal in the lead, 11-9.
Consecutive goals from the field from Cambiaso and Torres had it all
even at 11-11 Torres had Valiente ahead 12-11
with 1:33 on the clock but Gonzalez made good on a Zorzal penalty shot,
12-12, with seven seconds left in
regulation time to force overtime.
After a brief intermission both teams
returned to the field for the extra chukker.
Stirling took control of the throw-in and passed the ball down field to
a streaking Cambiaso. With just twelve
seconds off of the clock, Cambiaso scored on a neck shot from nearly 50 yards
out for the winning goal, 13-12.
The victory kept Valiente undefeated at 3-0
while Zorzal record fell to 1-2.
Gonzalez led all scoring with eight goals
(four on penalty shots). Crowder and
Mannix scored two goals apiece, in the loss.
Cambiaso’s five goals set the pace for Valiente. Torres added four goals and Jornayvaz and
Stirling each scored two goals.
ERG BEATS AUDI, 11
-10
Earlier in the day, ERG improved their record
to 2-1 in a win over Audi (1-3), with Paco de Narvaez scoring the winning goal
with 42 seconds left in regulation time.
Audi 10-goaler Gonzalito Pieres scored the
first goal of the chukker from the opening throw-in for an early 1-0 lead that
held up for nearly five minutes before Agustin Merlos evened it up for ERG with
a goal from the field, 1-1.
Both offenses were muted in the opening
minutes of the second period with de Narvaez taking advantage of an Audi foul
to convert a 60-yard penalty shot for a go-ahead goal, 2-1. Audi responded with three consecutive goals
(a penalty goal from Nico Pieres and goals from the field from Gonzalito Pieres
and Jeff Hall), closing out the chukker on top of a 4-2 score.
ERG combined shutout defense with a pair of
third chukker goals from Merlos (one on a 60-yard penalty shot) to end the
first half deadlocked at 4-4.
ERG managed to take a narrow 7-6 lead in the
fourth on a pair of goals from de Narvaez and a single goal from Merlos. Nico Pieres converted a Safety (60-yard
penalty shot) for a goal and received a single goal from Gonzalito Pieres.
Nico Pieres tied it at 7-7 on a penalty conversion
to open the fifth, but de Narvaez gave the lead back to ERG, 8-7, on a goal
from the field. Merlos followed it up at
3:37 with a goal that extended the ERG lead to two goals, 9-7. Gonzalito Pieres brought Audi back into the
game on a well-placed neck shot from over 100 yards out for a goal that cut the
ERG lead to a single goal, 9-8. Merlos
padded the ERG lead by adding a final goal with eight seconds on the clock for
the 10-8 lead.
Penalty goals from Nico Pieres and Gonzalito
Pieres went unanswered, tying the score at 10-10 with less than three minutes
left in regulation time. Audi mounted a
drive on the ERG goal with less than a minute-and-a-half left. Gonzalito Pieres lofted a well-placed pass
ahead to a waiting Marc Ganzi just twenty-five yards in front of the ERG
goal. The shot went wide and ERG managed
to knock the ball back into play and carry it the length of the field where de
Narvaez scored the winning goal with 42 seconds left in the game. The final horn sounded and an elated ERG team
left the field with an 11-10 victory.
Merlos led the ERG attack with six goals (one
on penalty) while teammate de Narvaez scored five times (one penalty goals) for
the win. Gonzalito Pieres scored six
times for Audi (two penalty goals). Nico
Pieres added three penalty conversions for goals and Hall scored once in a
losing effort.