The International Polo Club welcomed 28 young players who participated in youth polo competition Monday on the Jan Pamela fields in Wellington.
TheTackeria (Lauren Biddle, Juancito Bollini, Matthew Coppola and Lorenzo Merlotti) will meet Far Niente (Michel Bellissimo, Gonzalo di Cuircio, Agustin Arellano and Wesley Finlayson) in the Zone 4 final of the inaugural USPA National Youth Polo Tournament at 4pm Tuesday on the Everglades Field.
In Monday’s opening action at Jan Pamela Field, The Tackeria led for all four chukkers and scored a 10-6 victory over Escue (Liam Lett, Ayaan Qureshi, Geronimo Obregon and Johnny Lavine) in the opening Division I, four-chukker game to earn a finals berth.
The Tackeria’s Juancito Bollini, 16, a senior at Wellington High School, and Matt Coppola, each scored three goals in the win.
The Tackeria’s Lorenzo Merlotti, 17, a senior at Palm Beach Central High School, converted two penalty shots for goals. Both Bollini and Merlotti were coming off of weekend appearances in Maserati US Open play at the International Polo Club-Bollini for Audi and Merlotti for Piaget.
The Tackeria’s Lauren Biddle, the only girl in the game, scored twice, including one on a penalty conversion.
Escue’s Johnny Lavine led his team with three goals. Ayaan Quraeshi and Geronimo Obregon each scored a goal and the team was awarded one goal on a Penalty 1.
In the second Division I game of the day, Far Niente broke open a 4-4 halftime tie to score an 8-5 win over Grand Champions (Grant Ganzi, Wesley Bryan, Marcos Alberdi and Matias Gonzalez).
Gonzalo Cuircio led all scoring with four goals. Wesley Finlayson scored three times and Agustin Arellano added a goal for Far Niente.
Fourteen-year-old Matias Gonzalez, an eighth grader at Polo Park Middle School and 15-year-old Wesley Bryan scored two goals apiece in the loss. Grand Champions also received one goal by handicap.
In the Division II flight, Grand Champions, Pony Express and Polo School at Grand Champions took turns playing round robin play over six chukkers. The round robin will continue on Tuesday at 5 p.m., also at the Everglades Polo Field. The score will be carried over.
The Division II Grand Champions lineup was Santos Bollini, Matt Cohen, Justin Daniels and Anthony Devriente. Pony Express consisted of Lucas Arellano, Malia Bryan, Benji Daniels and Nico Escobar. Polo School at Grand Champions’ roster was Clemente Devriente, Santino Magrini, Hank Watson and Christian Weisz.