Nic Roldan was named MVP as he and his teammates downed Faraway, 11-9.
(Photo by Alex Pacheco).

In a surprising turn of events Valiente (Robert Jornayvaz, Santi Torres, Sapo Caset and Tomas Garbarini) were forced to forfeit the final of the 2014 Ylvisaker Cup, giving the trophy to El Cabure (Scott Wood, Sugar Erskine, Agustin Merlos and Carlucho Arellano) without a chukker being played.

It appears that in a little known rule of the United States Polo Association’s, an improper replacement of a Valiente player made the team ineligible.

According to a statement issued by the International Polo Club, “Valiente was informed an hour before the game that due to a technicality one of the players on their roster was not eligible to play, therefore they elected to withdraw.”

A replacement team was quickly recruited to replace the Valiente team on the field, and in short order, an ERG team (Kelly Plato, Juan Martin Obregon, Marianito Obregon and Jose Donoso) rode onto the field to battle the veteran El Cabure lineup in a four chukker exhibition game.

Without the benefit of handicap from the 20-goal El Cabure team, the 18-goal ERG team of replacement players lost 5-3, with El Cabure team captain Scott Wood scoring four of his team’s five goals.

Marianito Obregon scored twice for ERG; with Jose Donoso picking up his team’s only other goal in the 5-3 loss.

AUDI 11, FARAWAY 9

Earlier in the day, Audi (Grant Ganzi, Lucas Lalor, Nic Roldan and Freddie Mannix) scored an 11-9 win over Faraway (Santiago Chavanne, Martin Pepa, Mariano Gonzalez and Hutton Goodman) in the Ylvisaker Cup subsidiary tournament.

With fifteen-year-old Grant Ganzi replacing his father, Marc, in the lineup, Audi took an immediate 1-0 lead for a 1-0 start.  First chukker goals from Fred Mannix and Nic Roldan (penalty goal) gave Audi a 3-0 edge.

The two teams traded goals in the second with Roldan adding two more goals for Audi while Faraway picked up a penalty and a goal from the field from Gonzalez.  After two chukkers of play, Audi found themselves in control of a 5-3 game.

Single goals from Martin Pepa and Nic Roldan cancelled one another out as the first half came to a close.  Audi rode off the field with a 6-4 halftime lead.

Roldan got Audi on the right track as the talented 8-goaler accounted for all three of the Audi goals.  Roldan opened the chukker by converting a 40-yard penalty shot for a goal.  Two more goals from the field from Roldan were answered by a single penalty goal from Gonzalez.  At the end of the fourth chukker, Audi was driving off with a four goal, 9-5 advantage.

Faraway rallied in the fifth period, picking up a pair of goals from Santiago Chavanne and a single goal from Hutton Goodman.   Mannix scored a single goal for Audi who continued to led, 10-8.

Faraway continued to press and looked to build on the momentum they picked up in the previous chukker, but that would not be the case.  Chavanne brought Faraway to within a goal in the final chukker, but Roldan put the nail in the coffin with his eighth goal of the game in the team’s 11-9 victory.

Roldan led all scoring with eight goals and was named MVP for his efforts.  Mannix added two goals and the team received one goal by handicap from the 20-goal Faraway lineup.  Gonzalez set the pace for Faraway with four goals.  Chavanne scored three times while Pepa and Goodman were each credited with a goal in the course of the match.  Gonzalez’s gray mare, Meghan, received Best Playing Pony honors.