Miramar/M3 Wins USPA President’s Cup at Santa Barbara Polo Club

Cotterel jumped out to an early 3-1 lead, Ruben Coscia looked unstoppable on a speedy dark mare and proved consistent on penalty conversions. Fortunately for Miramar/M3, two goals by Madelyn Cobb in the 3rd chukker helped close the gap. The score at halftime was 5-4.

The action opened up in the 4th chukker, with wide open runs resulting in a plethora of field goals. Cotterel opened up an 8-4 lead and looked like they would run away with the game, but the scrappy Miramar team fought back to close the chukker with field goals from Santi Wulff and Luis Saracco to stay within 2 goals.

The fast and furious 5th chukker saw Cotterel mounting an attack on goal that resulted in a hard angled cut shot goal from Jenny Luttrell, but every time Cotterel extended their lead Miramar/ M3 would battle back within 2 goals again. Santi Wulff was deadly accurate at the 60 yard line to hold Miramar/M3 within striking distance, converting three penalty 4 shots. Cotterel kept running and gunning, but by the end of the 5th Miramar/M3 had fought their way back in the game and cut the margin to just 1 goal.

Entering the 6th chukker, the score stood at 10-9. After a flurry of runs, Rhett Merrill drew a foul in the red zone to set his team up for the penalty shot to tie the game at 10 all. Both teams had their chances on goal in the next few runs, but finally Luis Saracco made a fantastic coast to coast run on his brave black mare to put Miramar/ M3 into their very first lead of the game at 11-10 with 2 minutes left. With momentum in their favor, the Miramar/ M3 team added an insurance goal to make the final score 12-10

BPP was Luis Saracco’s “Tormenta.”

MVP was Santiago Wulff.

That concludes the fall 8 goal season, next week is the Last Chance Tournament for local California players. 9 teams are competing in the 4 goal and 1 goal flights

Photo credit to David Lominska, polographics.com