The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
The simple thing of this game was a combination of very well-mounted pros with extremely good team play that Lucchese could never overcome. It started out very well for Lucchese, but they were never in total control. There was a reason the triple M’s Merlos, Merlos and Muller were on a mission. They had an gal named Kerstie Allen, who never quit fighting for a win. The simple fact is the M bros were superiorly mounted and played such a team game it would have been very hard to stop no matter who it was. They had many runs where the ball player was 100 yards ahead of the defender … not a good idea. Both Sebastian and Agustin have been 10-goals. THEY WERE DEADLY WHEN IT COUNTED down by 2 at end of the second, 5 to 3 and oh my they scored 6 to take a 3-goal lead. It made you wonder as Lucchese is a good team, but they only seemed to be there when needed. Kerstie did a great job replacing Scott Walkter and showed her amazing riding skills by blocking major players.
The game had a few more fouls than most games. They had 16 in the first 1/2. A very unusual thing … 3 open goals were misses and both Sapo and Agustin are very steady shooters. The second 1/2 started with Lucchese down by 3, but they got right back in it shutting ERG down in the 4th, but Sebe showed some major speed in the 5th and got 2 back with a couple big picks from Remy and Kerstie. The boys in black from Lucchese came back again early in the 6th, but the Merlos Machine just shut the door and scored another to say goodby and hello for # 2 PCO trophy.
The game was not as much speed as we hoped for, but there were some awesome runs by the big sticks that were fun to see and not easy on a very chewed up field on the ocean end. We may never see 20-goal again at the Polo Club and I hope it is not true, but I see little hope at this time.
Congratulations to the young Americans on both teams … Tom Collingwood and even younger Remy Muller both did a very good job. Unfortunately it was usually on each other. ERG and Lucchese have won the last 5 PCO’s and they both are Texas-based teams. There was no sweep here this year as these 2 split the Silver Cup and PCO. Maybe we will get the big guns back in the next few years as this is really going to change the feel of Polo to the Polo people. We shall see.
PCO CHAMPS
Kerstie Allen
Remy Muller
Agustin Merlos
Sebe Merlos (also MVP)
see ya