By Alex Webbe
The 2011 C. V. Whitney Cup kicked off Sunday morning with the Hawks and Audi scoring early wins in the season’s first 26-goal tournament at the International Polo club in Wellington.
The field of eleven teams features some eight 10-goalers and an impressive array of international polo stars.
The Hawks scored seven first half goals against Steve Van Andel’s Orchard Hill team on its way to an impressive 13-9 win.
Steve Van Andel scored the first goal of the game with Mariano Gonzalez and 10-goaler Mariano Aguerre each scoring a goal for the Hawks. Argentine 10-goaler Pablo MacDonough ended the first chukker with a penalty conversion for a goal and a 2-2 tie.
The Hawks put Orchard Hill on the defensive and attacked its goal throughout the second chukker, getting a pair of goals from the field from Julian Mannix. Orchard Hill was shut out, and trailed by a 4-2score.
Freddie Mannix converted two penalty shots for goals and Gonzalez added another goal from the field. MacDonough scored Orchard Hill’s only goal of the period and trailed 7-3 at the end of the first half of play.
Aguerre opened the second half with a goal from the field for the Hawks, but MacDonough responded with a pair of goals for Orchard Hill. The Hawks continued to lead, 8-5.
Four more Hawks goals (two from Julian Mannix and single goals from Aguerre and Gonzalez) had Orchard Hill reeling, and despite goals from Hector Galindo and MacDonough, trailed the Hawks 12-7 with one chukker left in the match.
Gonzalez scored his fourth goal of the day for the Hawks in the final period while Orchard Hill was awarded a rarely called Penalty 1 (automatic goal) and picked up another penalty goal from MacDonough for the final score, 13-9 in favor of the Hawks.
Gonzalez and Julian Mannix led the Hawks attack with four goals apiece. Aguerre scored three times and Freddie Mannix added two goals in the win.
MacDonough scored six times for Orchard Hill. Van Andel and Galindo added single goals and the team received a goal on a penalty.
AUDI DRIVES PAST LAS MONJITAS, 6-5
“It was a terrible game,” said Audi 10-goaler Gonzalito Pieres. “We couldn’t hit a thing today,” she said with a smirk on his face. “We were lucky that they weren’t seeing the ball any better than we were,” he laughed.
Such was the attitude of a member of last year’s Argentine Open Championship Ellerstina team after Audi’s opening 6-5 win over Las Monjitas in the 2011 26-goal C. V. Whitney Cup competition at the International Polo Club.
“A win is a win,” agreed brother Nico Pieres, “but today we played like #%*&.”
Las Monjitas got on the scoreboard first on penalty goals from Santi Toccalino and Negro Astrada. Audi’s Brazilian 8-goaler, Rodrigo Andrade answered with Audi’s only goal of the chukker. Las Monjitas took the early 2-1 lead.
The Audi defense tightened in the second with Gonzalito Pieres converting on a penalty goal, the only offense of either side. Gonzalito Pieres tied it at 3-3 with a goal in the third on a 40-yard penalty goal before Las Monjitas 10-goaler, Agustin Merlos, scored a go-ahead goal from the field.
The first half ended with Las Monjitas holding on to a precarious one goal, 4-3 advantage.
Audi didn’t get much offense in the next two chukkers, a penalty goal from Pieres in the fourth and a goal from the field from Andrade in the fifth, but shutout defense kept Las Monjitas from getting on the scoreboard, and at the end of five chukkers of play, Audi held a paper thin 5-4 edge.
Astrada scored his second goal of the game to tie it up at 5-5, but it would be Audi team captain Marc Ganzi who would score the winning goal on a dash toward the Las Monjitas goal.