(L to R)- La Indiana team captain Michael Bickford gives pursuit to Dos Lunas 8-goaler FAcundo Sola in Siver Cup action at the Santa Maria Polo Club Monday.
A patchwork La Indiana lineup (Michael Bickford, Juan Cruz Merlos, Pite Merlos and Ruki Baillieu) gave up five unanswered first chukker goals as Dos Lunas (James Fewster, Paul S. de Vicuña, Facundo Sola and Martin Podesta) recorded a 15-12 win over their injury riddled opponent in Silver Cup play at Spain’s Santa Maria Polo Club Monday.
With both of La Indiana’s 8-goalers sidelined by injuries (Tincho Merlos-severe muscle pull; Nic Roldan-fractured tibia), La Indiana couldn’t generate either offense of defense in the first seven minutes of the game with Dos Lunas seemingly scoring at will for a 5-0 lead.
Dos Lunas added two more goals in the second with La Indiana scoring three times and cutting the lead to four goals, 7-3.
Dos Lunas regrouped and outscored La Indiana in the third chukker, 3-2, and rode off the field at the end of the first half on top of a 10-5 score.
Four more fourth chukker goals extended the Dos Lunas lead to seven, 14-7. Another La Indiana injury saw Ruki Baillieu leave the game to be replaced by Genaro Ringa as La Indiana struggled to stay in the game.
La Indiana’s strongest period of the day came in the fifth as they scored four times. Dos Lunas was held to a single score but continued to lead, 15-11.
La Indiana scored the only goal of the final chukker in the 15-12 Dos Lunas victory. The win boosts the Dos Lunas record to 1-1 and sends them to the semifinals where they will face a 2-0 Ayala polo team (Iñigo Zobel, Peque Gonzalez, Facundo Pieres and Santiago Laborde). The loss was the second of the tournament for La Indiana (0-2) who will play a mini-quarterfinal match against Brunei (Bahar Jeffrey, Martin Valent, Pablo MacDonough and Hugo Lewis) on Wednesday for the right to meet Lechuza (Alejo Taranco, Camilo Castagnola, Juan Martín Nero and Will Harper) in Friday’s semifinals.