By Alex Webbe
Newport and Elangeni Ranch both scored identical 11-10 overtime scores to make their way to Sunday’s finals of the 2010 Elegante’ Polo Fall Plate on the grounds of the Palm City Polo Club in Boca Raton Friday afternoon.
In the afternoon opener, Newport team captain Gene Goldstein scored a game-high six goals in leading Newport to an 11-10 overtime win over an aggressive Audi foursome.
Goldstein scored all three goals for Newport in the opening chukker to offset a pair of penalty goals from Audi’s South African 7-goaler, Sugar Erskine for the early lead. Audi shut down the Newport attack in the second frame while getting a tying goal from Erskine and a go-ahead score from Peter Rizzo. The chukker ended with Audi taking a 4-3 lead.
Newport shutout the Audi offense and got three goals in the third chukker, with Goldstein adding a goal from the field and his third penalty goal of the game. Stevie Orthwein got on the scoreboard for the first time, making it 6-4 at the end of the first half.
Newport got goals from Orthwein and Chris Nevins in the fourth, but Matias Sosa and Lucas Lalor kept Audi in the game with single goals. Newport left the field with an 8-6 advantage.
Defenses tightened in the fourth. Shots at goal went wide or were blocked. Rizzo scored one goal from the field for Audi while Nevins accounted for the only goal of the chukker for Newport. The teams entered the final chukker with Newport sitting on top of a 9-7 score.
Erskine added a pair of goals to the Audi total in the sixth, and Lalor scored his second goal on the day, but a single goal from Goldstein made it 10-10 as regulation time expired.
Charging into overtime, the Newport continued to press the Audi goal. Less than two minutes into the overtime period, a near goal from J. J. Celis just missed winning the game for Newport, resulting in an Audi knock-in. Erskine topped the ball on the knock-in, and when he turned to retrieve it, his horse inadvertently kicked the ball through the goal posts for the winning Newport goal, 11-10.
Goldstein scored six times in the win with teammates Orthwein and Nevins adding two goals apiece. The winning goal was credited as a “pony goal.”
Erskine led the Audi attack with five goals. Lalor and Rizzo added two goals each and Matias Sosa scored once in the loss.
ELANGENI RANCH 11, CINQUE TERRE 10 OT
In earlier tournament action, Elangeni Ranch got an overtime goal from Kris Kampsen for the overtime win after Cinque Terre’s Esteban Scott scored his fourth goal of the game to force the sudden-death chukker.
Elangeni Ranch received two goals by handicap from the 16-goal Cinque Terre foursome and quickly added to it as team captain Brian Street scored the opening goal of the game. Cinque Terre got single goals from Scott, Hector Galindo and Leo Mandelbaum, however, and knotted it up at 3-3.
Second period play saw Elangeni Ranch’s Joey Casey score two quick goals while Cinque Terre was held to a single goal from Mandelbaum. Elangeni Ranch moved ahead, 5-4.
Elangeni Ranch was held to a single penalty goal from Kampsen in the third. Cinque Terre responded with a goal from Mandelbaum, and the first half ended with Elangeni Ranch holding on to a one goal lead, 6-5.
In the fourth chukker, Cinque Terre scored on a penalty goal from Scott and got a goal from the field from Carlos Baez. Kampsen converted a 60-yard Safety, but the game was all even at 7-7 going into the fifth.
Two minutes into the fifth chukker, Elangeni Ranch tied it with a penalty goal from Kampsen for an 8-7 lead. Cinque Terre tied it on Scott’s third goal of the afternoon, but once again it was Kampsen who scored the go-ahead goal to end the chukker with Elangeni Ranch holding a 9-8 advantage.
The pace picked up in the sixth with both teams racing up and down the field in a mad effort to score. Baez’s second goal of the game knotted it at 9-9. Kampsen scored to give Elangeni Ranch a 10-9 lead, but it was short-lived. Scott’s fourth goal of the game tied it at 10-10 and sent the game into overtime.
With just over a minute-and-a-half left to play, Kampsen took control of the ball and carried it over 150 yards down the field for the winning score.
Kampsen scored six times; Casey added two goals; and Street scored once in the 11-10 win.
Scott’s four goals led the Cinque Terre attack. Mandelbaum added three goals; Baez accounted for two and Galindo was credited with a single goal in a losing effort.
Final action in the 2010 Elegante’ Polo Fall Plate between Elangeni Ranch and Newport at the Grand Champions Polo club is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 7 at 3:30 pm. A consolation match will be played between Audi and Cinque Terre at 12:30 pm.