Sara Rotman’s Dark Horse Polo team won the USPA Presidents Cup 10-9 in another OT showdown with Film Finances. These two teams are so evenly matched that every game they have played has been down to the wire.
Winners: Dark Horse. Jesse Bray, Dayelle Fargey, Sara Rotman, Max Menini
The first chukkers started off even, but in the 2nd and 3rd Dark Horse steadily crept on ahead, helped by some strong runs from Jesse Bray. It was 6-4 in favor of Dark Horse going into the 4th chukker, which was the biggest margin in any game between these two teams yet.
After halftime, Film Finances dug in deep on defense and held Dark Horse scoreless, and Santi Wulff converted on an amazing penalty 5 shot for Film Finances from just in front of the half way line to bring Film Finance back within one.
Things really started to heat up in the 5th chukker, as the teams traded goals. Wulff converted on a penalty to tie things up, a familiar state of affairs for these two teams, and then Max Menini retaliated with a field goal. Wulff countered, Menini countered back with another goal, and then Film Finance’s patron Leigh Brecheen got the last word for the chukker on a field goal to bring the score to 8-8 heading into the 6th.
The 6th chukker felt like an overtime period, with each player determined to mark their opposite number and every play hard fought. Finally, with just over a minute left, Film Finance converted on a penalty 2 to take the lead 9-8. But on the following play, Jesse Bray made a nice steal at the boards, and dribbled the ball in on the nearside to send the game to OT.
In the always exciting overtime period, there were several scoring chances on the condo end of the field that just went wide. Then with 4 minutes and change left, Dayelle Fargey took advantage of a broken play to jump on a loose ball and run the ball in for the golden goal, final score 10-9 in favor of Dark Horse.
MVP Max Menini
BPP: “Lola”, Max Menini
MVP of the game was Max Menini, his black mare “Lola” was awarded BPP
In the consolation, celebrity polo player and model Nacho Figueras treated the crowd to an exhibition appearance, playing on the Mansour team. Although the crowd thoroughly enjoyed Nacho’s fancy stick work, the opposing Wildcat team was determined to prove that they were not in awe of celebrity and outplayed Mansour 14-10 to win the consolation game.
Next week is the last 8 goal tournament for the season, the Wickenden Cup single elimination tournament. Schedule is below.
Friday Oct 5– Wickenden Cup playoffs
3pm: Dark Horse vs Mansour
4:30pm: Film Finance vs Casa Sombras
Sunday Oct 7
1pm Wickenden Cup Final
3pm Wickenden Cup Consolation