By Alex Webbe
After trailing throughout the first four chukkers of the game, White Birch rallied to score seven goals in the final two periods of play for a 12-11 win Sunday afternoon in USPA Piaget Gold Cup competition at the International Polo Club in Wellington.
Black Watch took an early 2-1 lead on goals from Sugar Erskine and Luis Escobar. White Birch’s Pancho Bensadon accounting for their only goal.
Nacho Figueras scored the first two goals of the second chukker with Bensadon converting a penalty shot and scoring from the field for White Birch. Black Watch held the 4-3 lead at the end of the chukker.
Fred Mannix and Escobar added single goals for Black Watch in the third chukker. Ten-goaler Mariano Aguerre responded with a goal from the field for White Birch. Black Watch left the field with a 6-4 edge.
White Birch patron Peter Brant was forced to leave the game at halftime with a shoulder injury and was replaced by Canadian 2-goaler Rob Stenzel.
Play see-sawed back and forth in the fourth chukker with Bensadon adding two more goals while Black Watch picked up single goals from Mannix and Escobar, and held a two goal lead, 8-6.
The fifth chukker belonged to White Birch. Goals came from Bensadon, Jeff Blake and Aguerre. Black Watch was held scoreless for the first time all afternoon and trailed for the first time all day, 9-8.
“I don’t think it was the goal (his goal) that turned the game in the fifth chukker,” said Aguerre, “I think it was a change in strategy.”
Escobar opened the sixth chukker with a goal on a penalty shot to tie the game, 9-9, but Bensadon answered with a well placed shot through the Black Watch goal posts to retake the lead, 10-9.
White Birch continued to press the attack with Stenzel scoring his first goal of the game followed by another goal from Bensadon, giving White Birch a three goal lead, 12-9.
Not ready to give up, Mannix showed great individual effort on a scoring drive followed by a valiant effort from Erskine who scored the final goal of the game. With White Birch patron Peter Brant on the sidelines, Black Watch fell, 12-11.
“Every goal is important when you need goals,” said MVP Bensadon, “It was not enough to get us into the finals.”
Aguerre’s 13-year-old Bay, Califa, was named Best Playing Pony.
Despite the loss, Black Watch moves into Wednesday’s semifinals on net goals scored.
Pony Express 15, Zacara 14 OT
In earlier USPA Piaget gold Cup action, Pony Express patron Bob Daniels scored the winning goal in overtime with a difficult nearside fore shot to defeat Zacara 15-14.
In a hard-fought game that saw injury timeouts for two players (Pelon Sterling and Jeff Hall), Pony Express was able to come back from a 12-11 deficit in the fifth chukker to tie and then win the game in the sudden-death overtime period.
The victory puts Pony Express into the tournament semifinals against Lechuza Caracas on Wednesday afternoon.
Zacara’s Jeff Hall led all scoring with eight goals. Teammate Magoo Laprida scored three times and Carlos Gracida added two goals in the loss.
A balanced attack that carried the day for Pony Express was led by five goals apiece from Nick Roldan and Matias Magrini. Pelon Stirling came back from an ugly fall in the fifth chukker to score four goals in the course of the game while the sole goal of the day by Daniels came in the all important sudden-death overtime period.
Orchard Hill 11, Audi 9
Audi suffered its first loss of the season in an 11-9 game with Orchard Hill (1-2) in USPA Piaget gold Cup play Sunday afternoon with 10-goaler Pablo MacDonough leading all scorers with eight goals.
After a 1-1 first chukker, Audi ran off to a 3-1 lead in the second chukker with Orchard Hill coming back to knot it up at 4-4 at halftime.
MacDonough scored six of his eight goals in the second half when Orchard Hill outscored Audi 7-5.
Audi (2-1) will move into semifinal play on Wednesday against Black Watch (2-1).
Lechuza Caracas 11, Las Monjitas 7
Taking up where they left off in a rain-delayed Saturday afternoon gold Cup match, Lechuza Caracas built on the 6-3 lead they had amassed in the first three chukkers of the game to cruise to an 11-7 win over Las Monjitas, and earn a berth in Wednesday’s semifinals against Pony Express.
Sapo Caset and Juan Martin Nero scored four goals apiece for Lechuza. Team captain Victor Vargas added two goals and Nicolas Espain chipped in a single goal for the win.
Nacho Astrada led Las Monjitas with five goals. Adam Snow and Eduardo Astrada scored single goals.