Audi/Mt. Brilliant Wins US Trust Cup in 13-12 Shootout

By Alex Webbe

Audi/Mt. Brilliant got three goals by handicap to open the finals of the 2010 US Trust Cup Sunday afternoon at the Grand Champions Polo Club, and needed every one of them to beat Newport/Barbarossa Leather 13-12 in a hotly contested match.

Both teams battled one another up and down the fields, but shots were blocked, shots went wide, and at the end of the first seven and-a-half minutes of play, no goals were scored.  Audi/Mt. Brilliant led by virtue of their three goals by handicap, 3-0.

Audi’s Sugar Erskine scored the first goal from the field to open the second chukker, and teammate Marc Ganzi added another on a penalty conversion, but goals from Julio Ezcurra and Hector Galindo kept Newport in it, trailing 5-2 after the first two periods of the game.

A penalty goal by Galindo in the third was followed up by a goal from Gene Goldstein, and Newport trailed by a single goal, 5-4.  Audi answered with another penalty goal from Ganzi and a goal from the field from Erskine, but Newport was just getting started.  Galindo scored on a well=placed neck shot at goal and then took the ensuing throw-in 150 yards down the field for another score.  Goldstein scored his second goal of the chukker to tie it up at 7-7 at the end of the first half.

Ganzi gave the lead back to Audi with his third goal of the game in the fourth chukker before two penalty conversions from Newport’s Leo Mandelbaum first tie and then took the lead away, 9-8.  Audi’s Bo Goodman scored his first goal of the game to even it up again at 9-9.  Less than a minute later, Ezcurra suffered a punishing fall when his horse went down.  Both horse and rider were unhurt, but Ezcurra was replaced by his brother Tommy as a precautionary measure, and the game continued.  Ganzi converted a penalty shot and scored another from the field to end the chukker with Audi building a two goal lead, 11-9.

Erskine’s third goal of the game put Audi up 12-9 before goals from Galindo and Goldstein cut it down to a single goal, once again.  Audi took a narrow 12-11 lead into the final chukker of play.

The pace continued to quicken as Newport fought to even the score and Audi struggled to hold the lead.  With time running out, Lucas Lalor scored for Audi to give them a two goal lead, 13-11, but Newport continued to press its attack.  With less than thirty seconds left, Mandelbaum broke loose with the ball to score the final goal of the match, but the game went to Audi by a narrow 13-12 margin.

Ganzi led the Audi/Mt. Brilliant attack with five goals.  Erskine scored three times and Lalor and Goodman added single goals in the win.  Audi received three goals by handicap.

Galindo accounted for five goals from Newport/Barbarossa Leather.  Goldstein and Mandelbaum added three goals apiece and Julio Ezcurra scored once in the loss.

FLAT OUT 13, PIAGET 11

The combination of Paul Knapp and Brandon Phillips proved to be too much in the US Trust consolation match as Flat Out managed to take the 13-11 game from a talented Piaget team.

Piaget received one goal by handicap to start the game, but goals from Diego Coscio, J. J. Celis and Knapp had Flat Out ahead 3-1 at the end of the first chukker.

Piaget took the field in the second as if they were possessed, however, scoring five straight goals.  Joey Casey went on a tear, putting the ball through the goal posts three times in less than two minutes, and Steven Scott and Piaget team captain Melissa Ganzi added single goals to the potent attack they unleashed.  Phillips managed to score a goal for flat Out before the period ended, but trailed 6-4.

The third chukker belonged to Flat Out, with Knapp scoring twice from the field and converting a penalty shot for a third goal to take a 7-6 lead.  Melissa Ganzi scored the final goal of the first half, and both teams left the field locked in a 7-7 tie.

Coscio and Phillips each scored in the fourth while holding Piaget to a single penalty goal from Kris Kampsen and the period ended with Flat Out ahead 9-8.

The scoring went back and forth in the fifth.  Phillips put Flat Out up 10-9 with his third goal.  Scott put a goal on the scoreboard for Piaget.  Knapp converted a penalty goal for Flat Out and Kampsen ended the scoring with his second goal of the game.  The fifth period ended with flat Out hanging on to a precarious 11-10 advantage. 

Kampsen tied it for Piaget in the sixth and final chukker, but Phillips turned on the after burners and scored the final two goals of the game, giving Flat Out the game by a 13-11 margin.

Phillips and Knapp led the scoring with five goals apiece.  Coscio added two goals and Celis scored once.

Casey and Kampsen scored three goals apiece for Piaget.  Melissa Ganzi and Scott each scored twice and Piaget received one goal by handicap.