Valiente’s Santiago Chavanne on the attack with Dubai players in pursuit in yesterday’s 20-goal Joe Barry memorial Cup action at the International Polo Club. (Photo by Alex Pacheco)
Dubai’s (Rashid Albwardy, Carlos Gracida, Diego Cavanagh and Alejo Taranco) offense was only surpassed by their defense in Wednesday afternoon’s Joe Barry Memorial Cup match with Valiente (Bob Jornayvaz, Roberto Zedda, Santi Torres and Santi Chavanne) as they ran out to a surprising 8-1 halftime lead on their way to an 11-9 victory.
Alejo Taranco, the talented Argentine 6-goaler who was a member of Valiente’s 2015 United States Open championship team, found himself on the other side of the line in the 3pm contest, scoring the opening goal of the game, 1-0. Diego Cavanagh showed the skills that had him playing alongside Adolfo Cambiaso on Rashid Albwardy’s high-goal Dubai team in England as he converted a 60-yard penalty shot for a goal and followed it up with a goal from the field. Valiente was unable to launch a successful run at goal in the first chukker and fell behind, 3-0.
The Dubai defense continued to dominate in second period play. A 30-yard penalty conversion from Taranco was followed by a goal from the field from Cavanagh with both teams exhibiting superior horse power in the 20-goal tournament. For the second consecutive period Valiente was unable to score and trailed 5-0 after two chukkers.
Cavanagh controlled the third chukker, opening the scoring with another 60-yard penalty goal and adding two more goals from the field, 8-0. Santiago Chavanne broke open the shutout with a 40-yard penalty goal that ended the first half. Dubai rode off the field leading by seven goals, 8-1.
Valiente’s offense began to stir in the fourth period. Goals from Santi Torres and Roberto Zedda began to cut into the large Dubai lead, 8-3, but there was more work to be done. A foul in the Valiente goalmouth resulted in a Penalty 1 that surrendered a goal to Dubai, 9-3, but the Valiente team was undeterred. Team captain Bob Jornayvaz connected for his first goal of the game and Chavanne found himself on the scoring end of a pass from Torres in the final seconds of the fourth chukker to cut the Dubai lead to four goals, 9-5.
Cavanagh continued to plague the Valiente defense in the fifth chukker, taking advantage of a Valiente foul and converting his third 60-yard penalty shot of the day, 10-5. Zedda countered with a 40-yard penalty goal of his own, 10-6, as the Valiente offense continued to improve. Once again it was Chavanne with the final goal of the period. Dubai continued to lead but Valiente had cut the once insurmountable lead to a manageable three goals, 10-7.
Zedda opened the sixth chukker with a 30-yard penalty goal that brought Valiente to within two goals of the lead, 10-8, but Cavanagh continued to haunt the Valiente defenders, adding his eighth goal of the match, 11-8, on a short penalty conversion. Valiente continued to hurl attack after attack at the Dubai defenders but to little avail. Torres scored the final goal of the game with less than a minute on the clock and Dubai collected their second Joe Barry Memorial Cup win, 11-9. The win improved Dubai’s record to 2-0 while Valiente remained winless at 0-2.
Cavanagh collected four of his game-high eight goals on penalty conversions. Taranco scored twice and the team received one goal on a Penalty 1. Chavanne and Zedda scored three goals apiece for Valiente. Torres added two goals and Jornayvaz scored once in the loss.
Villa del Lago 12, Palm Beach Illustrated 11
In the second Joe Barry Memorial Cup game of the day Villa del Lago (Jim Zenni, Guille Aguero, Hilario Ulloa and Agustin Obregon) got the best of Palm Beach Illustrated (Nacho Badiola, Jared Zenni, Facundo Obregon and Jesse Bray) in a back-and-forth12-11victory.
Palm Beach Illustrated started out strong, picking up goals from the opening goal from Facundo Obregon and Jesse Bray, 2-0. Hilario Ulloa got Villa del Lago on the scoreboard with a 30-yard penalty shot, 2-1. A final goal from Obregon closed out the first period with Palm Beach Illustrated riding a 3-1 lead.
Villa del Lago wasted little time getting back into the game. Second chukker action got started with a goal from the field from Vila del Lago team captain Jim Zenni, 3-2. Ulloa scored twice (once on a penalty conversion) to take their first lead of the game, 4-3. Bray tied the game at 4-4 to end the period.
A defensive third chukker saw little in the way of effective attacks by either side. Ulloa accounted for the only goal of the game on a 60-ayrd penalty goal s Villa del Lago rode off at the end of the first half on top of a delicate 5-4 score.
A regrouped Palm Beach Illustrated team took the field in the fourth period and showed their determination by scoring the first two goals of the second half. A penalty goal from Obregon was followed by a goal from the field from Bray as Palm Beach Illustrated resumed the lead, 6-5. Guille Aguero leveled the score at 6-6 with his first goal of the day. The final goal of the chukker went to Obregon who allowed Palm Beach Illustrated to leave the field with a narrow 7-6 advantage.
Jared Zenni (son of Villa del Lago’s Jim Zenni) stretched the Palm Beach Illustrated lead to two goals, 8-6, in the opening minutes of the fifth chukker. Villa del Lago responded with goals from Aguero and Ulloa for an 8-8 deadlock. Bray’s fourth goal of the game put Palm Beach Illustrated back into the lead, 9-8. A Palm Beach Illustrated foul proved costly, with Ulloa converting from 30-yards out, 9-9.
Ulloa scored a goal from the field that gave Villa del Lago the lead, 10-9, in the final chukker, but the game was far from over. Consecutive goals from Nacho Badiola and Obregon (30-yard penalty conversion) gave the lead back to Palm Beach Illustrated, 11-10. A penalty goal from Ulloa was followed by a goal from the field from the talented Argentine 9-goaler and Villa del Lago celebrated the hard-fought 12-11 win.
Ulloa showed why the Argentine Polo Association elevated his handicap to the coveted 10-goals as he scored nine times for the victory (five on penalty goals. Aguero added two goals and Jim Zenni was credited with a goal for the win. Obregon’s five goals led the Palm Beach Illustrated offense. Bray stepped up with four goals on the day with Jared Zenni and Badiola adding single goals in the loss.
The victory improved the Villa del Lago record to 2-0 while Palm Beach Illustrated fell to 1-1.
Joe Barry Memorial Cup action continues on Thursday at the International Polo Club with a 3pm game between Audi/Millarville (Grant Ganzi, Nic Roldan, Julian Mannix and Freddie Mannix) and the 2015 defending championship Orchard Hill entry (Steve Van Andel, Polito Pieres, Peke Gonzalez and Lucas Criado).