By Alex Webbe
Skeeterville spotted Black Watch one goal by handicap and methodically marched its way to a 14-13 win Thursday afternoon in the USPA Piaget Gold Cup competition at the International Polo Club in Wellington.
Led by eight goals from Wellington’s own Julio Arellano and a strong final chukker, Skeeterville managed to slide past a determined Black Watch foursome.
Arellano scored five of his goals in the first half with teammates Adam Snow knocking in three more and Owen Rinehart adding a single goal for a 9-4 lead in the third period. Two field goals from Black Watch’s Pablo MacDonough, however, and a penalty conversion by his brother Matias MacDonough cut the Skeeterville to 9-7 at the end of the first half.
Arellano converted a penalty shot and 9-goaler Adam Snow scored his fourth goal of the game for an 11-7 edge, as the defense shut out Black Watch in the fourth chukker.
The MacDonough brothers got Black Watch back into the game in the fifth period as they scored two goals apiece to tie it up at 11-11. Arellano got Skeeterville on the scoreboard with a penalty goal for a 12-11 lead, but Pablo MacDonough returned the favor with a penalty goal of his own to knot it at 12-12.
Sixth chukker goals from Snow and Arellano gave Skeeterville a 14-12 lead before Pablo MacDonough’s eighth goal of the game brought Black Watch within a goal of the lead.
The Skeeterville defense held firm, and the final bell sounded with a 14-13 Skeeterville win.
In earlier Gold Cup action, Marcos di Paola scored the winning goal in sudden-death overtime to lead Isla Carroll to a hard fought 11-10 win over previously undefeated Zacara.
In one of the tournament’s fastest paced contests horse and rider carried the ball up and down the field as Isla Carroll’s Facundo Pieres and Zacara’s Carlos Gracida ended up with eight goals apiece for their respective teams.
In a back and forth game that saw Zacara holding the lead for a large part of the contest, it would come down to a sudden-death overtime goal to decide the outcome.
The wide-open style of Gracida, Mike Azzaro and Tommy Biddle was assisted by Carlitos Gracida (son of Carlos) who was filling in for the absent patron, Lyndon Lea, but Isla Carroll wasn’t shy about showing off its horsepower and mallet skills in Pieres, Magoo Laprida, John Goodman and Marcos di Paola.
Top thoroughbred polo ponies were showing an enthusiastic crowd that they were ready to compete after rain delays caused the schedule to be reshuffled.
Zacara held a narrow 6-5 halftime lead, and stretched it to 9-7 after the fourth, but Isla Carroll continued to press with 10-goaler Pieres at the head of the attack. Two goals from Pieres and a goal from di Paola in the sixth chukker were answered by a single Gracida goal, and regulation time expired in a 10-10 tie.
Early action in the overtime period gave the initial advantage to Zacara, but several near goals were rejected by the Isla Carroll defense that promptly reversed the play.
A streaking di Paola carried the ball through the goal for the winning goal, and Isla Carroll ends preliminary Gold up play with a 2-0 record and a spot in the quarterfinals.