By Alex Webbe
It was the second round of the Lechuza Caracas Cup, the earliest 26-goal competition in South Florida’s recent polo history, and Friday’s match pitted two undefeated teams against one another in White Birch (1-0) and Audi (1-0) on the White Birch field in Wellington.
Each team featured top members of polo’s elite. White Birch boasted the talented 10-goaler Mariano Aguerre, the MVP of the 2007 Argentine Open and teammate Lucas Monteverde (recently elevated to 10-goals in Argentina). Mariano’s nephew, Martin Aguerre, played at the Number 1 position for White Birch with Armando Gonzalez replacing patron Peter Brant at Back.
Audi came to the field with brothers Facundo (10-goals) and Gonzalito Pieres (9-goals), both rated at the maximum 10-goals in Argentina. Filling out the lineup were Nacho Figueras and Marc Ganzi.
Both teams entered the contest having scored victories in their Lechuza Cup openers.
White Birch got on the board first on goals from Mariano Aguerre and Gonzalez. Audi answered with two goals of its own as Facundo Pieres converted a Penalty 3 and brother Gonzalito followed with a goal from the field. Martin Aguerre closed out the scoring in the first chukker with a go-ahead field goal, and White Birch left the field with a 3-2 lead.
White Birch continued to press the Audi defense with both teams trading goals until Monteverde’s second goal of the period pushed the White Birch lead to two goals, 6-4.
Audi opened the third chukker with two goals from Gonzalito Pieres to tie the game for only the second time in the contest. Gonzalito took the opening throw-in 150 yards down the field for the first score and stole the ball from White Birch 70 yards from the goal. He carried it the distance, and scored. Moments later, Monteverde converted a Safety to give White Birch a 7-6 lead. Mariano Aguerre then notched his second goal of the game for a two goal, 8-6 advantage. Facundo Pieres converted a Penalty 3, and Audi trailed by a single goal at halftime, 8-7.
Facundo Pieres’s opening goal of the fourth chukker was probably the best looking goal of the day. From over fifty yards and at an extreme angle Facundo stroked a nearside neck shot through the goal posts. Monteverde answered with his fourth goal of the game before two penalty conversions (a Penalty 4 and a Penalty 3) from Facundo gave Audi its first lead of the game, 10-9.
As pressure continued to build the whistles became more and more frequent. Three of the four goals scored in the fifth chukker were scored on penalty shots as Audi held its lead, 12-11.
Fouls continued to take over the game (nine in the sixth chukker alone) as White Birch converted two Penalty 2s (while missing two Penalty 3s). With time running down, Nacho Figueras scored his first, and Audi’s most important goal of the game thus far, to knot it all up at 13-13 as time expired.
As White Birch and Audi were preparing for an overtime chukker, the skies opened up and a heavy downpour drove players, horses, officials and fans from the field. The OT frame will be rescheduled for a later date.
Lechuza Caracas Cup action will continue on Sunday on the Lechuza Caracas home fields with an 11am game between Memo Gracida and his La Herradura foursome tournament host Victor Vargas his Lechuza team.