By Alex Webbe

The 14-goal Wanderers Classic opened the 2012 medium goal season at the International Polo Club in Wellington Saturday morning with Faraway scoring a resounding 14-10 win over Paul Knapp’s Flat Out quartet.

Steve Krueger got flat Out on the scoreboard first with a first chukker goal from the field before Faraway responded with goals from Tomas Obregon and Julian Daniels.  Juan Vallerdi gave Faraway a 3-1 lead with his first goal of the game, and Nick snow closed out the opening chukker with a 40-yard penalty conversion.  Faraway led, 3-2.

Both defenses tightened in second with Obregon scoring a single goal from the field for Faraway and Snow responding with a Flat Out goal.  After two chukkers of play Faraway continued to lead, 4-3.

Faraway took control of the game in the third chukker with Daniels adding two more goals from the field and Obregon converting a penalty shot for a goal.  Vallerdi added his second goal of the game and Faraway left the field at the end of the first half with an 8-3 lead.

Obregon added three more Faraway goals in the fourth, scoring twice on penalty shots and scoring once from the field.  Vallerdi added another goal while the Faraway defense held Flat Out to a pair of goals from Krueger, extending its lead to seven goals, 12-5.

Flat Out came up with a pair of scores in the fifth as team captain Paul Knapp and Todd Offen managed single goals.  Vallerdi scored Faraway’s only goal of the chukker as Flat Out trailed 13-7 with one chukker left to play in regulation time.

Vallerdi’s fifth goal of the game had Faraway up 14-7 with Flat Out struggling to get back into the game.  Krueger scored a goal and Snow scored two more times from the field as Faraway coasted to the 14-10 win.

“It took us a little while to get it going,” offered Faraway 6-goaler Julian Daniels, “but once we got on track it moved along almost effortlessly.  It’s a great team,” added Daniels, “We’ve got two talented young players in Tomas (Obregon) and Juan (Vallerdi), and Hutton (Goodman) played a great game.”

Obregon led all scoring with six goals.  Vallerdi scored five times and Daniels added three goals in the win.

Snow and Krueger scored four goals apiece for Flat Out.  Knapp and Offen added single goals in the loss.

Wanderers Cup play will continue on Wednesday, January 11 with a 3 pm game between La Casa Hermosa (0-0) and Faraway (1-0).