By Alex Webbe
The International Polo Club in Wellington was the scene for the semifinals of the 2009 Butler Handicap with Las Monjitas and White Birch scoring wins and moving on to Sunday’s finals.
In the 3pm contest, Argentine 8-goaler Pancho Bensadon set the pace with eight goals as White Birch built up an 8-5 lead over Orchard Hill on its way to a 13-11 win.
Bensadon scored five of his game high eight goals in the first half as Orchard Hill struggled to establish a playing rhythm.
“We started out strong,” said Orchard Hill’s Hector Galindo, “but we missed a couple of opportunities in the third and fourth chukkers and let them get ahead of us. We finished strong, but we just couldn’t make up for the third and fourth chukkers,” he added.
Bensadon led all scorers with eight goals. Teammates Jeff Blake and Mariano Aguerre scored two goals apiece while Rob Stenzel, substituting for an injured Peter Brant, scored once.
Ten-goaler Pablo MacDonough scored five goals fro Orchard Hill. Lucas Criado added four goals and team captain Steve Van Andel and Hector Galindo added single goals in the loss.
In the earlier semifinal match Las Monjitas took Zacara apart in a 17-11 game. Las Monjitas built up a 4-1 lead after the first chukker and never surrendered the lead.
While Las Monjitas scored multiple goals in every chukker, Zacara had trouble finding the range as shot after shot went wide when they were finally able to mount an attack.
“We really weren’t concentrating on the game today,” said Zacara 8-goaler Jeff Hall, “They played hard and did a good job. We’ll see what happens in the Open (the United States Open Championship) next week,”
The fourth chukker ended with Zacara trailing 10-8, and then Las Monjitas took the field and really slammed the door.
Playing shutout defense Las Monjitas scored five consecutive goals for a 15-8 lead. The final chukker resulted in Zacara scoring a handful of meaningless goals as Las Monjitas took the game, 17-11.
Adam Snow scored nine goals for Las Monjitas. Nacho Astrada converted six penalty shots and added a goal from the field and 9-goaler Eduardo Astrada scored once.
Carlos Gracida scored five times for Zacara. Hall added four goals to the total with Magoo Laprida scoring twice and Weston Gracida, filling in for team captain Lyndon Lea, adding a single goal.
The win lifts Las Monjitas into the finals of Sunday’s noon final of the Butler Handicap against today’s victorious White Birch team.