With the 2013 Maserati U. S. Open Championship building to a crescendo at the International Polo Club in Wellington, the teams are pulling out all the stops in an effort to reach the finals of America’s most prestigious tournament.
In Sunday’s action, Adolfo Cambiaso scored the winning goal in the first twelve seconds of overtime to lift Valiente to an exciting 13 to 12 win over Zorzal in front of over five thousands cheering spectators. Just two hours earlier ERG’s Paco de Narvaez scored the winning goal with just 42 seconds on the clock to beat Audi 11-10 as the competition intensifies on the road to the US Open finals.
Valiente team captain Bob Jornayvaz scored the first goal of the game in the opening minute of play on a beautiful setup pass from Adolfo Cambiaso, but the Zorzal defense shutout the powerful Valiente offense for the next five minutes of play. Santi Torres finally broke through to score the final goal of the chukker with just 1:15 left to play for a 2-0 start.
Ten-goaler Pelon Stirling got credit for the opening goal of the second chukker in a flubbed defensive move by Mannix, and the Valiente lead grew to three goals, 3-0. Jason Crowder found himself on the end of a well-placed hit by Mannix less than three minutes into the second and finally got Zorzal on the scoreboard, 3-1. Mariano
Gonzalez closed out the scoring in the chukker with his first goal of the game and cut the Valiente lead to a single goal, 3-2.
Cambiaso and Gonzalez exchanged penalty goals to open the third period, 4-3. Stirling walked the ball through the goalposts to make it 5-3, but goals from Crowder and Gonzalez tied it up at 5-5. Cambiaso took the lead back for Valiente with a goal in the final 18 seconds of the chukker. At the end of the first half Valiente was holding on to a narrow 6-5 advantage over a talented Zorzal foursome.
The pace continued to quicken and the temper of the game became more intense as the second half got underway. Miserly defenses on both sides held the scoring to a single score from Mannix just 13 seconds into the fourth chukker. With two chukkers left in regulation time, the game was all even at 6-6.
Mannix scored off of a penalty shot just twelve seconds into the fifth chukker give Zorzal their first lead f the match, 7-6, and a goal lest than a minute later extended the Zorzal lead to two goals, 8-6. Torres scored with five minutes left in the period to cut the lead to a single goal, 8-7, and with 1:21 left in the fifth, Jornayvaz tied it up at 8-8. Gonzalez converted a 40-yard penalty shot to end the chukker with Valiente trailing, 9-8.
Cambiaso scored in the opening seconds of the sixth chukker on a beautiful pass from teammate Stirling to tie it up again, 9-9. A hard bump send Gonzalez to the penalty line where he converted a shot for the goal and an anemic 10-9 advantage. Another goal from the field from Gonzalez had Zorzal in the lead, 11-9. Consecutive goals from the field from Cambiaso and Torres had it all even at 11-11 Torres had Valiente ahead 12-11 with 1:33 on the clock but Gonzalez made good on a Zorzal penalty shot, 12-12, with seven seconds left in regulation time to force overtime.
After a brief intermission both teams returned to the field for the extra chukker. Stirling took control of the throw-in and passed the ball down field to a streaking Cambiaso. With just twelve seconds off of the clock, Cambiaso scored on a neck shot from nearly 50 yards out for the winning goal, 13-12.
The victory kept Valiente undefeated at 3-0 while Zorzal record fell to 1-2.
Gonzalez led all scoring with eight goals (four on penalty shots). Crowder and Mannix scored two goals apiece, in the loss. Cambiaso’s five goals set the pace for Valiente. Torres added four goals and Jornayvaz and Stirling each scored two goals.
ERG BEATS AUDI, 11 -10
Earlier in the day, ERG improved their record to 2-1 in a win over Audi (1-3), with Paco de Narvaez scoring the winning goal with 42 seconds left in regulation time.
Audi 10-goaler Gonzalito Pieres scored the first goal of the chukker from the opening throw-in for an early 1-0 lead that held up for nearly five minutes before Agustin Merlos evened it up for ERG with a goal from the field, 1-1.
Both offenses were muted in the opening minutes of the second period with de Narvaez taking advantage of an Audi foul to convert a 60-yard penalty shot for a go-ahead goal, 2-1. Audi responded with three consecutive goals (a penalty goal from Nico Pieres and goals from the field from Gonzalito Pieres and Jeff Hall), closing out the chukker on top of a 4-2 score.
ERG combined shutout defense with a pair of third chukker goals from Merlos (one on a 60-yard penalty shot) to end the first half deadlocked at 4-4.
ERG managed to take a narrow 7-6 lead in the fourth on a pair of goals from de Narvaez and a single goal from Merlos. Nico Pieres converted a Safety (60-yard penalty shot) for a goal and received a single goal from Gonzalito Pieres.
Nico Pieres tied it at 7-7 on a penalty conversion to open the fifth, but de Narvaez gave the lead back to ERG, 8-7, on a goal from the field. Merlos followed it up at 3:37 with a goal that extended the ERG lead to two goals, 9-7. Gonzalito Pieres brought Audi back into the game on a well-placed neck shot from over 100 yards out for a goal that cut the ERG lead to a single goal, 9-8. Merlos padded the ERG lead by adding a final goal with eight seconds on the clock for the 10-8 lead.
Penalty goals from Nico Pieres and Gonzalito Pieres went unanswered, tying the score at 10-10 with less than three minutes left in regulation time. Audi mounted a drive on the ERG goal with less than a minute-and-a-half left. Gonzalito Pieres lofted a well-placed pass ahead to a waiting Marc Ganzi just twenty-five yards in front of the ERG goal. The shot went wide and ERG managed to knock the ball back into play and carry it the length of the field where de Narvaez scored the winning goal with 42 seconds left in the game. The final horn sounded and an elated ERG team left the field with an 11-10 victory.
Merlos led the ERG attack with six goals (one on penalty) while teammate de Narvaez scored five times (one penalty goals) for the win. Gonzalito Pieres scored six times for Audi (two penalty goals). Nico Pieres added three penalty conversions for goals and Hall scored once in a losing effort.