Julian Mannix on the ball for Audi/Millarville in the 11-9 win in the Joe Barry Memorial Cup play at the International Polo Club in Wellington, Florida. (Photo by Alex Pacheco)
Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel, Polito Pieres, Peke Gonzalez and Lucas Criado) rode onto the field at the International Polo Club Thursday afternoon as the defending Joe Barry Memorial Cup winner, but it was Audi/Millarville (Grant Ganzi, Julian Mannix, Nic Roldan and Fred Mannix) with the early lead on their way to an 11-9 win.
Peke Gonzalez scored the first goal of the day from the field, 1-0, followed by four consecutive goals from Audi/Millarville. Freddie scored Audi’s first goal, 1-1, followed by back-to-back goals from Roldan and a rocket through the goalposts from Grant Ganzi for the 4-1 first chukker lead.
The two teams traded goals in the second period with Polito Pieres and Lucas Criado cutting the Audi lead back to one goal, 4-3. Fred Mannix scored his second goal from the field, 5-3, with Roldan adding to it just a minute later, boosting Audi/Millarville in front by three goals, 6-3.
Criado and Pieres opened the third chukker with single goals that brought Orchard Hill to within a goal of the lead, 6-5. Julian Mannix scored his first goal of the game for a 7-5 Audi/Millarville lead. Gonzalez scored for the second time on the day to make it 7-6. Roldan closed out the chukker, scoring his fourth goal of the match to put Audi/Millarville on top of an 8-6 halftime score.
Fred Mannix kept Audi/Millarville on the attack, scoring a goal in the opening 18 seconds of the fourth period, 9-6. Roldan converted a 60-yard penalty shot, 10-6. A great individual effort had Criado scoring with one second on the clock, and kept Orchard Hill in the game, 10-7.
Both defenses stepped it up in the fifth with physical ride-offs and blocked shots. With 3:08 left to be played in the chukker, Julian Mannix took advantage of a pair of Orchard Hill players being off the field changing horses to race down the field and score his second goal of the game and send Audi farther into the lead, 11-7. Orchard Hill was unable to score and trailed b four goals with one chukker left to be played.
Pieres sparked a brief rally in the sixth period with a penalty goal and a goal from the field that cut the Audi/Millarville lead down to two goals with over five minutes left to play. The Audi/Millarville defense held on for the win and leveled their record at 1-1. Orchard Hill, the defending Joe Barry memorial Cup champion suffered their first loss and fell to 1-1.
Joe Barry Memorial Cup action continues on Saturday at the International Polo Club with an 11am game between Audi/Millarville (Grant Ganzi, Nic Roldan, Julian Mannix and Freddie Mannix) and Valiente (Bob Jornayvaz, Roberto Zedda, Santi Torres and Santi Chavanne).