Valiente and Lechuza I in Everglades Classic Final Alex Webbe Valiente shot out of the gates Wednesday morning in the first of the day’s semifinals in the Everglades Classic at the International Polo Club. Santiago Bottarro opened the chukker with a goal from the field followed by three goals (two on penalty shots) from 8-goaler Jeff Hall. A resilient defense kept Little Owl off of the scoreboard as the teams headed into the second chukker of play with Valiente ahead, 4-0. Bottarro’s second goal of the game had Little Owl trailing 5-0. J. P. Uihlein scored Little Owl’s first goal followed by a penalty conversion from teammate Chris Nevins, and the chukker ended with Valiente holding a 5-2 lead. The third chukker was all Little Owl as Nevins converted two penalty shots for goals and Joe Wayne Barry scored the tying goal from the field in a 5-5 contest. This time it was the Little Owl defense that silenced the Valiente attack to end the first half. Valiente made up for lost time in the fourth, picking up a pair of goals from Hall and single goals from Bottarro and Ulysses Escapite. Nevins scored on a 40-yard penalty goal to end the chukker, but it was Valiente on the winning end of a 9-6 score. Little Owl got a pair of goals on penalty shots from Jason Crowder and Nevins in the fifth while Hall notched his sixth goal of the game for Valiente. Little Owl cut the Valiente lead to two goals, 10-8, with one chukker left to play. Hall converted a 60-yard penalty shot for the first goal of the final chukker, 11-8, but was answered by goals from Nevins and Uihlein, 11-10. Hall picked up his eighth goal of the game on a 40-yard penalty shot as Little Owl tried desperately to keep pace. Nevins collected his seventh goal of the day on a penalty conversion, but that would be where it ended. Valiente celebrated the 12-11 win and looked forward to Saturday’s Everglades Classic finals. Hall led all scoring with eight goals (five on penalty shots). Bottarro scored three times and Escapite added a goal in the win. Nevins led the Little Owl attack with seven goals (five on penalty shots). Uihlein scored twice and Crowder and Barry added single goals. LECHUZA ONE 10, GOOSE CREEK 9 Lechuza One secured the other Everglades Classic finalist spot with a 10-9 win over a competitive Goose Creek foursome in the afternoon. Goose Creek’s Mason Wroe opened the scoring in semifinal play with a goal from the field, but Lechuza One responded with a goal from Gaston Lisioli in a 1-1 chukker. A pair of goals from the field from Robert Orthwein had Lechuza One in the lead 3-2 after two chukkers of play, with Martin Zegers accounting for the only Goose Creek goal on a penalty shot. Goose Creek raced back into the competition in the third, getting another goal from Zegers and a pair of goals from 7-goaler Jose Donoso. Lisioli scored one goal from the field and another from the field for Lechuza One, to end the first half in a 5-5 tie. Zegers added two more goals to the Goose Creek total in the fourth, but single goals from Orthwein, Lisioli and Toto Collardin gave the lead back to Lechuza One, 8-7. Lisioli’s fifth goal of the game had Lechuza up 9-7, but Wroe’s second goal of the afternoon had Goose Creek trailing but kept them close at 9-8. Collardin’s second goal of the game had Lechuza up by a pair of goals again with time running out in the final chukker. Zegers scored one last goal for Goose Creek in the 10-9 Lechuza victory. The win lifted Lechuza One into the Saturday finals against Bob Jornayvaz’s Valiente team for the 16-goal Everglades Classic Championship.