Goose Creek team captain, Maureen Brennan.
(Photo by Alex Pacheco)
Goose Creek (Maureen Brennan, Nick Johnson, Tano Vial and Cote Zegers) evened their record at 1-1 in the International Polo Club’s Wanderers Classic 14-Goal play on Wednesday by downing El Cabure (Bill Patterson, Jeff Blake, Luis Escobar and Federico Virasoro) 13-10. Later in the day a balanced Four Seasons (Amista) (Lucas Arellano, Weston Gracida, Jesus Arellano and Matt Coppola) attack took early control of their game with ELG (Lorenzo Merlotti, Avery Chapman, Kris Kampsen and Guille Aguero) and rode on to a 9-6 win. The victory has the Four Seasons as the only undefeated team in Wanderers Classic play at 2-0. ELG falls to 1-1.
In the opening contest El Cabure’s Jeff Blake converted a penalty shot to open the game followed by a goal from the field from Luis Escobar. A disciplined defense held Goose Creek scoreless as El Cabure left the field on top of a 2-0 score.
The two teams exchanged goals in the second chukker with Escobar adding two more goals (one on a penalty) for a 4-0 advantage. Goose Creek responded with single goals from Tano Vial and Nick Johnson, but continued to trail, 4-2.
A determined Goose Creek team took the field in the third. Opening goals from Cote Zegers and Vial tied the game at 4-4. Jeff Blake converted a 60-yard penalty shot for a goal, 5-4, and teammate Escobar added another from the field to move in front, 6-4. Vial closed out the first half with a pair of goals that locked it up at 6-6.
Fourth chukker action saw Vial and Escobar exchange goals to keep it all even at 7-7. Nick Johnson scored the tie breaker to end the period with Goose Creek ahead, 8-7.
A fifth chukker penalty goal from Blake tied the score at 8-8 before goals from Johnston and Zegers had Goose Creek in the lead by two goals, 10-8.
Zegers stretched the Goose Creek lead to three goals, 11-8 to open the sixth chukker. Escobar responded with a 40-yard penalty goal, 11-9. Goose Creek team captain Maureen Brennan made it 12-9 with her first goal of the game. Blake scored for El Cabure on a short penalty shot to cut the Goose Creek lead to two goals, 12-10. Vial ended the contest with his sixth goal of the game for the 13-10 Goose Creek victory.
FOUR SEASONS 9, ELG 6
In a slow starting afternoon contest between the Four Seasons and ELG, Matt Coppola scored the only goal of the first two chukkers with a goal in the first for a 1-0 lead. Defense ruled the day as neither team was able to score in the second.
Four Seasons exploded for four goals in the third, with Coppola adding his second, Julio Arellano converting a 60-yrd penalty shot and Weston Gracida scoring twice for the 5-2 lead. Guille Aguero put two goals on the scoreboard for ELG.
Aguero’s third goal of the game opened the second half, 5-3. Penalty conversions from Julio Arellano and his son Lucas Arellano kept the Four Seasons attack burning as they moved out to a four goal lead, 7-3.
Two goals from the field in the fifth by Julio Arellano went unanswered as the Four Season’s lead expanded to six goals, 9-3.
Kris Kampsen came up with a sixth chukker goal for ELG, 9-4, and Aguero added two more, 9-6, as the Four Seasons attack was held scoreless, but the die had already been cast as the Four Seasons rode off with the 9-6 win.