The final game of the Eldorado Polo Club’s 2013 12 Goal Carlton and Keleen Beal Memorial Cup turned out to be a game of streaks – as in goal scoring streaks. Both Jenny Lutterell’s Cotterel Farms and Ben Soleimani’s Mansour came into the game with perfect records from bracket play and both had been to final games this season with both coming away as runners-up – in fact, Lutterell had been twice before.
The start was very fast for Cotterel as a quick jump out of the opening throw-in led to early pressure on the Mansour goal and a Santiago Wulff clearing effort was deflected through by Ignacio Saracco. The rug guys managed to come back in a hurry and pressure on the Cotterel goal was rewarded with a Danny Walker open goal conversion to tie the count at one. At this point, the first streak of the afternoon started as Luis Saracco (from the field) and Ruben Coscia (penalty two) got things started and Lutterell and her farmhands led by two after the first with the count at 3 – 1.
The second was pretty much all Cotterel as they smothered Mansour with absolutely devastating force that allowed Ignacio Saracco and Coscia to score one goal each and the second ended with the farmers now leading by four (5 – 1).
Cotterel kept up the pace early in the third as both Saraccos and Coscia (penalty 4) scored and they had now counted seven goals in a row and had amassed a lead of seven at 8 – 1. With Mansour now ‘on the ropes’, and in need of help, Walker stepped up and counted one from the field to end the onslaught. With the streak ended, the entire Soleimani Group seemed to relax and Santiago Von Wernich was able to score to bring the rug people back to within five at the half.
With one goal scoring streak ended, another had started as Mansour, now playing with extreme confidence, took control in the fourth and applied pressure on Cotterel – now the overwhelmed team – as Walker converted two open goal free-throws and Von Wernich added one from the field. With the farmers in disarray, the Soleimani boys were making sales and trailed by just two going to the fifth (8 – 6).
Mansour kept pounding early in the fifth and Walker was offered another open goal opportunity that he seized and the Mansour streak was now six goals. With that counter being the only goal of the chukker, the Cotterel lead was but one goal going into the final (8 – 7) and the farmers were most definitely the team in trouble now – not having scored since the third.
Mansour kept the pressure on but were able to get nothing in the early going of the sixth and the pendulum was starting a swing to now favor Cotterel as the ever cool Coscia grabbed a goal to stop the Mansour streak at six and allowed Cotterel to win the Beal Memorial by a score of 9 – 7. As a result, the soon to be bride Lutterell, was no longer a bridesmaid.
As a reward for his cool and steady play, Coscia was selected as the MVP and Wulff’s horse Pele was chosen as the Best Playing Pony.
2013 Carlton and Keleen Beal Memorial Cup – Eldorado Polo Club
Cotterel Farms (12) – Jenny Lutterell, Luis Saracco 4, Ignacio Saracco 3, Ruben Coscia 5.
Mansour (12) – Ben Soleimani, Danny Walker 2, Santiago Wulff 5, Santiago Von Wernich 5.
Tony Gregg
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