The Bombardier Pacific Coast Open got off to a great start today with four games of fast polo. There were upsets galore, as some of the teams that struggled in the previous tournaments found their groove today.
At 10am Patagones played ERG. Patagones looked like they had regained their winning form from the Skene, as they led throughout the first half. Carlos Gracida was a force to be reckoned with, as he rolled off five first half goals for Patagones. ERG rallied in the 4th chukker, scoring three goals to one for Patagones, the first of the three ERG goals off the stick of Paco de Narvaez, followed by the nearside shot of Gonzalo del Tour, and then a line drive de Narvaez goal with seconds remaining in the chukker. Then de Narvaez got a breakaway goal out of the lineup at the start of the 5th to put ERG up 8-6. But Gracida got his team back in the game by intercepting an ERG shot and running it back to goal, with his teammates clearing a path for him, and followed it up with a penalty 2 conversion. Both teams were tied at 8-8 at the start of the 6th chukker, but once again Gracida came through with a beautiful end to end run for a goal on Ducati, and in the last minute Brandon Phillips had a key save in front of goal for Patagones, which he followed up with an insurance goal to give Patagones the win, 10-8.
In the other morning game, Lucchese faced off against Zacara. The game was close throughout, as goals were traded back and forth. It as a clean game without many fouls, but it took a bit for the game to open up. Mike Azzaro scored five goals to lead the Lucchese squad, but in the end a missed penalty 2 in the last chukker would prove costly for Lucchese, and give Zacara the breathing room needed to finish the game for the win. Nico Pieres led to scoring for Zacara with six goals. The finals score was 9-8 in favor of Zacara, giving them their first win so far this summer.
At 1pm, defending PCO champions Audi faced Grants Farm, their opponent from the 2008 finals. Luis Escobar started the scoring off for Audi, but Sugar Erskine and Jeff Hall set up Pedro Falabella for a pair of nice goals to ease Grants Farm into the lead. In the second chukker Kris Kampsen kept Audi close with three goals. Jeff Hall saw a couple of huge runs go wide of the goal mouth at the last second, but still managed to score a pair of goals, sandwiched around an Andy Busch run to goal from midfield. Falabella gave Grants Farm a two goal lead with a neck shot to goal to start the 3rd chukker, and after that Grants Farm never looked back. Erskine owned the 4th chukker with three goals scored for Grants Farm, and although both teams were on the move, scoring a lot and keeping the game open, Audi could not seem to slow Grants Farm. Audi tried to mount a comeback in the 6th but to no avail. The scoring was topped off by a beautiful play in the waning seconds of the game, as Juan Bollini, who played today despite a terrible case of food poisoning, passed to Kampsen, who passed the ball back to Bollini on the run for the goal. But it was not enough to catch Grants Farm, who won 17-13.
In the 3pm feature match, Mansour played Valiente. The first chukker was wide open, very fast with only one foul called. Martin Zegers had three goals in that chukker to help Mansour jump out to a 4-2 lead. Valiente kept their cool though, and by halftime the tables had turned as Valiente took a 7-5 lead into the halftime break. Mansour must have psyched themselves back up at the tent though, as they emerged for the 4th chukker on fire and regained the lead with three unanswered goals, a penalty shot and drive down the boards from Zegers and a field goal from Adam Snow. In the 5th chukker the action got even more intense. Nacho Astrada had a penalty shot conversion and a couple of spectacular saves for Valiente, counteracted by Snow taking the ball out of a melee in front of goal, into the corner and back to goal again for Mansour. Then Astrada hit the bouncing ball out of the air to send the game to the 6th chukker all tied up 9-9. But the 6th chukker was dominated by Mansour, as goals by Snow, Santi Trotz, and Ben Soleimani put the game away. A goal with time running out by Valiente kept the score close, but Mansour got their first victory of the summer 12-10.