Facundo Pieres and his Ayala teammates took the early lead and never looked back as they handed La Indiana a 16-8 pasting in Gold Cup action on Thursday at the Santa Maria Polo Club.
La Indiana’s (Michael Bickford, Juan Martin Zavaleta, Tincho Merlos and Byron Watson) celebration over their Tuesday win was short-lived as a powerful Ayala team (Iñigo Zobel, Peque Gonzalez, Facundo Pieres and Santiago Laborde) took them apart in a 16-8 blowout Thursday on Gold Cup competition at the Santa Maria Polo Club.
Ayala struck first and often as they put four goals on the [scoreboard in the opening chukker. La Indiana was unable to penetrate the rigid Ayala defense and fell behind, 4-0.
Three more second chukker goals from Ayala were answered by a single goal from La Indiana. At the end of the second period, La Indiana found themselves trailing by six goals, 7-1.
La Indiana found a little offense in the third, as they matched Ayala goal-for-goal, but gained no ground. The first half ended with Ayala on top of a 9-3 lead.
There was no let-up from the Ayala offense as the second half got underway. Ayala added four more goals while holding La Indiana to a single score. With two periods left in regulation play, Ayala held a nine-goal advantage, 13-4.
La Indiana rallied for three goals in the fifth, holding Ayala to their lowest offensive output of the match-a single goal, but it wasn’t enough. Ayala was in control of the game with a seven-goal edge, 14-7, and just seven minutes to play in the game.
Two more sixth chukker goals from Ayala were answered by a single goal from La Indiana as they recorded their second win of the tournament for a perfect 2-0 record. The loss was the first for La Indiana who fell to 1-1.
Gold Cup play continues at the Santa Maria Polo Club on Friday featuring Lechuza (Victor Vargas, Julian de Lusarreta, Juan Martín Nero and Camilo Castagnola) and Dos Lunas (James Fewster, Paul S. de Vicuña, Facundo Sola and Martin Podesta). Lechuza (1-0) will be looking for their second win of the tournament while Dos Lunas (0-1) will try to level their record with a victory.