By Alex Webbe
Skeeterville jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and held on for a 14-10 win over Patagones in the first round of the William T. Ylvisaker Cup at the International Polo Club in Wellington on Thursday afternoon.
“We did what we had planned,” said 7-goaler Owen Rinehart, “we just marked our opposing man and practiced simple polo.”
An easy remark from the former Virginia-born10-goaler, but the execution depended on the discipline of his three teammates.
“We just played simple polo,” repeated Skeeterville team captain, whose two third chukker goals helped it to a commanding 9-4 advantage. “They were a good team, and we just worked as a team.”
Two opening goals from Julio Arellano were followed up by a goal from Rinehart to give Skeeterville the early 3-0 lead. Patagones got its offense on tract in the second chukker with goals from Carlucho Arellano (Julio’s younger brother) and Mariano Gonzalez, but Skeeterville got two more goals from Julio Arellano to maintain a 5-2 lead.
Gonzalez converted a penalty shot and Carlos Avendano scored from the field for Patagones, but Skeeterville proved to be up to the challenge as it scored on two goals from Johnston and single goals from Julio Arellano and Rinehart, and Skeeterville left the field with a 9-4, five goal lead.
“I thought we had a slight lapse in the second and fourth chukkers,” added Rinehart, “but we regrouped and got it back on track.”
The score was 10-5 at the end of the fourth chukker and 13-9 after the fifth, as Patagones couldn’t manage to make up any ground.
Single sixth chukker goals from Skeeterville’s Rinehart and Patagones’ Gonzalez ended the game with Skeeterville on top of a 14-10 score.
Julio Arellano led all scorers with seven goals. Rinehart scored five times and Johnston added two for the win.
Gonzalez led the scoring for Patagones with four goals. Teammates Gonzalo Avendano, Carlucho Arellano and Carlos Avendano added two goals apiece.
In Thursday’s second Ylvisaker Cup match, Julio Gracida accounted for nine goals as Bud Light/ERG scored a 15-12 win over Neil Hirsch’s Black Watch team.
Black Watch received one goal by handicap to start the game, but battled to a 3-3 tie after the opening chukker.
Bud Light/ERG outscored Black Watch four goals to two as it took a 7-5 lead into the third period.
“We had to keep setting the pace of the game,” said Bud Light/ERG’s Hector Galindo. “They like to slow the game down, we like to go fast,” he added, “We believed that if we got the lead and set the pace for the game, we would win.”
However, it was Black Watch 9-goaler Pablo MacDonough who tied the game with two goals from the field in the third chukker while the defense held Bud Light/ERG scoreless, for a 7-7 tie score.
Both teams struggled to get anything going in the fourth frame as Bud Light/ERG relied on three penalty conversions from Gracida while Nacho Figueras added two goals and teammate MacDonough converted a penalty shot to keep the game even at 10-10.
Three consecutive goals from Bud Light/ERG in the fifth chukker were answered by a single Black Watch goal, and the game seemed to slip away with Bud Light/ERG holding on to a 13-11 score with just one period left to play.
“Our teamwork proved to be the difference,” said 6-goaler Roberto Gonzalez on his team’s win. “We have been practicing very hard, and it seems to have paid off for us.”
Gracida’s ninth goal of the game made it 14-11, Bud Light/ERG, and single goals from Black Watch’s Figueras and Bud Light/ERG’s Galindo closed out the scoring in the 15-12 Bud Light/ERG win.
Gracida led all scoring with nine goals. Teammate Roberto Gonzalez added three goals, Galindo scored twice and David Andras added a single goal in the win.
MacDonough led Black Watch with eight goals. Nacho Figueras scored three times.
Ylvisaker Cup play will continue on Friday with Audi playing Mt. Brilliant at 1PM followed by a Catamount-San Saba match-up at 3PM.