By Alex Webbe
There will be no Triple Crown for the Crab Orchard polo team this year as Victor Vargas and his Lechuza teammates delivered a knockout punch to George Rawlings’ championship team of last season.
In the opening round of play in the single-elimination 2011 C. V. Whitney Cup, Lechuza scored a 9-7 upset win over the heavily favored Crab Orchard team and its field general, Argentine 10-goaler Adolfo Cambiaso.
Crab Orchard took the early lead on goals from Cambiaso and teammate Hilario Ulloa, 2-0, as the Lechuza team found it difficult to sustain any productive attack in the opening chukker.
Lechuza got goals from Sapo Caset and Juan Martin Nero in the second, but Ulloa’s second goal of the game kept Crab Orchard in the lead, 3-2.
Third chukker goals from Ulloa and Cambiaso had Crab Orchard in front, 5-2, with Lechuza getting blanked for the second time in three chukkers, and trailing by three goals at the end of the first half.
A reorganized Lechuza team roared back into the game in the fourth period, getting a pair of goals from Nero and single goals from Caset and Martin Espain. The fourth chukker ended with Lechuza on the top side of a 6-5 score.
Lechuza added two more unanswered goals in the fifth, with Caset converting both a 40-yard and a 60-yard penalty shot for goals. With seconds left in the chukker, vocal objections to the umpires by Cambiaso drew a Technical. Crab Orchard was unable to put together a scoring drive in the chukker, and now trailed by three goals, 8-5.
No one doubted that Cambiaso, “the great one” was capable of a comeback despite being down by three goals, and the hundreds of cars and spectators that ringed the field were waiting for the magic, but the magic never came.
A penalty goal from Nachi Du Plessis and a goal from the field seemed to prime the pump in the final chukker, cutting the lead to a single goal, 8-7, but that proved to be all Crab Orchard Could muster. Caset responded with a penalty conversion of his own to make it 9-7.
With two minutes and nineteen seconds left to play, a very vocal Cambiaso received his second Technical and less than 30 seconds later received his third, forcing his ejection from the remainder of the game.
“I don’t know what was going on. There were no blatant fouls, no reason for him (Cambiaso) to get so upset,” said Lechuza 9-goaler Sapo Caset.
Lechuza held on for the win, and sent last year’s super team to the showers early in this year’s C. V. Whitney Cup competition.
Caset lead the Lechuza attack with five goals. Teammate Juan Martin Nero scored three times and Martin Espain added a goal in the win.
Cambiaso and Ulloa scored three teams apiece for Crab Orchard. Nachi du Plessis added a goal in the losing effort.
Play will continue in the 2011 C. V. Whitney Cup on Thursday, February 17 with a 1pm contest between Grand Champions and Bendabout, followed by a 3pm game featuring the Hawks (1-0) and Zacara.