Piaget’s Jeff Hall scored a game-high eight goals in a losing effort against ELG in USPA National 20-goal competition at the Grand Champions Polo Club.
ELG (Avery Chapman, Kris Kampsen, Guille Aguero and Tommy Biddle) took advantage of one goal by handicap from the 20-goal Piaget team (Melissa Ganzi, Jeff Hall, Piki Alberdi and Juan Bollini) and galloped out to a 6-5 halftime lead before running away with a 14-11 win in the opening match of the 2013 USPA National 20-Goal Tournament at Wellington’s Grand Champions Polo Club Wednesday afternoon.
Piaget’s Jeff Hall opened the game with a goal from the field to tie it up at 1-1 (ELG started with one goal by handicap) but ensuing goals from Guille Aguero and Kris Kampsen ended the chukker with ELG in the lead, 3-1.
Tommy Biddle’s first goal of the game put ELG on top by three goals, 4-1 while a vigilant defense kept Piaget off of the scoreboard for the first seven minutes of the second chukker. An ELG penalty in the final seconds of the period sent Hall to the penalty line where he converted a 30-yard shot to end the chukker. ELG continued to lead, 4-2.
Piaget team captain Melissa cut the ELG lead to a single goal, scoring in the first minute of the third. It would be three minutes of scoreless play until Aguero extended the ELG lead back to two goals, 5-3, with a score from the field. Consecutive goals from Hall (penalty goal) and Piki Alberdi tied it at 5-5 with 1:32 left in the chukker. Kampsen closed out the first half with his second goal of the day for a 6-5 advantage with 34 seconds on the clock.
Piaget struck first in the second half on a goal from Alberdi to knot the score at 6-6, but that was when ELG took over. Consecutive goals from Biddle, Kampsen (penalty conversion) and Aguero (on a 250 yard run) had ELG in possession of a 10-6 lead when the horn sounded.
Aguero scored to stretch the ELG lead to five goals, 11-6, in the opening 30 seconds of the fifth chukker when Piaget answered back. Hall scored consecutive goals (one from the field and one on a penalty shot) to cut the ELG lead back to three, 11-8. Biddle made good on a beautifully executed nearside neck shot for a goal, 12-8, but two more goals from Hall (one on a penalty shot) ended the period with Piaget trailing by just two goals, 12-10.
Biddle opened the sixth chukker with a goal from the field, 13-10, as the air seemed to be coming out of the Piaget rally. Hall converted another penalty shot for a goal, 13-11, but Aguero scored the last goal of the game for the 14-11 ELG victory.
Hall led all scoring with eight goals (five on penalty conversions). Alberdi scored twice and Ganzi added a goal in the loss. Aguero was credited with six goals for ELG. Biddle scored four times and Kampsen added three goals (one on a penalty shot). ELG also received one goal by handicap.
USPA National 20-Goal tournament competition will continue on Friday, November 15 with Audi (Marc Ganzi, Carlitos Gracida, Nic Roldan and Carlos Gracida) facing Grand Champions Polo Club (TBA, Julio Ezcurra, Carlucho Arellano and Luis Escobar) in a 1:30PM contest. In a following 3:30PM match, KIG (Bash Kazi, Brandon Phillips, Michel Dorignac and Jeff Blake) will meet Piaget (0-1).
The six teams competing have been separated into two divisions, with Audi, Casablanca (Grant Ganzi, Hector Galindo, Sugar Erskine and Mike Azzaro) and Grand Champions in the West Bracket and ELG, KIG and Piaget in the East Bracket. The finals have been scheduled to be played on Saturday, November 23rd.