Palm Beach Polo’s Tommy Biddle leads the charge in Tuesday’s USPA North American Cup action at Grand Champions Polo Club.
(Photo by Alex Pacheco)
A balanced Casablanca attack (Grant Ganzi, Kris Kampsen, Nic Roldan and Jeff Blake) rebounded from a 7-4 halftime deficit to beat a talented Flight Options polo team (Patrick Uretz, Hector Galindo, Mason Wroe and Juan Bollini) Tuesday afternoon in the semifinal of the 2014 USPA North American Cup at the Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington.
Earlier in the day Palm Beach Polo (Glenn Straub, Brandon Phillips, Jeff Hall and Tommy Biddle) staged a last chukker rally that lifted them past Grand Champions polo team, 11-8, to earn the other spot in the tournament final.
Flight Options received three goals by handicap from Casablanca and charged out to a 7-4 halftime lead.
Hector Galindo and Patrick Uretz each scored a goal in the opening chukker for Flight Options while Casablanca got single goals from Kris Kampsen and Nic Roldan. With the benefit of three goals by nandicap, Flight Options sat on top of a 5-2 lead after the first period.
Grant Ganzi and Kampsen scored goals n the second, cutting the lead to a single goal, 5-4, Uretz added a goal for Flight Options as they left the field with a 6-4 edge.
The Flight Options defense shut down the Casablanca attack in the third, and picked up another goal from Galindo. At the end of the first half Flight Options were in front by three goals, 7-4.
Consecutive goals from Jeff Blake, Grant Ganzi and Nic Roldan tied the game at 7-7 halfway through the fourth chukker. Casablanca closed out the period with a goal from the field from Hector Galindo and a penalty conversion from Mason Wroe. With two chukkers left to play, Flight Options were defending a 9-7, two goal lead.
Both attacks stalled in the opening minutes of the fifth period, with Grant Ganzi scoring the first goal of the chukker at the 4:26 mark, 9-8, Kris Kampsen tied it at 9-9 in the final mninute of play as the Flight Options attack was grounded by a disciplined Casablanca defense.
Jeff Blake;s second goal of the game came in the opening 30 seconds of the sixth chukker and broke the tie and gave Casablanca a one goal lead, 10-9. Roldan iced it with his third goal of the day while Flight Options was held scoreless for the second consecutive chukker and found themselves on the short end of an 11-9 score.
Grant Ganzi, Kris Kampsen and Nic Roldan scored three goals apiece. Jeff Blake added two goals for the win. Hector Galindo led the Flight Options offense with three goals, Patrick Uretz scored twice and Mason Wroe was credited with a goal in the loss. Flight Options also received three goals by handicap from the 20-goal Casablanca lineup.
The victory boosts Casablanca into the tournament final on Sunday against Palm Beach Polo. Flight Options and Grand Champions are slated to meet in the consolation match, Game times are 1PM and 3PM.