Thermal, CA (February 17, 2008) – For day two of the Ohana Tournament at the La Quinta Polo Club, the weather was once again absolutley perfect. Perfect as well on this afternoon was Hidden Creek/Pink Deco’s Graham Bray. With eight goals to his credit, Bray took the Sean Keys/David Ragland group to a share of top spot in the standings with a well earned 13 – 12 victory over Kelly Maloney’s Ohana/Tri Tech.
Coming off an impressive victory on Saturday and a chance to secure a spot in next Sunday’s final, Maloney and crew could not stop Bray. Not even with another big effort from Dan Juarez who followed up a five goal game the day before with six goals on this day.
Giving up one at the start on the handicap, Hidden Creek/Pink Deco were slow to get going and trailed by three at half-time by a 7 – 4 count. All that changed in the fourth as a five goal outburst – three from Bray – gave them a lead of one going to number five at 9 – 8. That lead held up to the end.
Scoring for the winners, in addition to Bray, Keys had three and Marcos Araya two.
Adding to the total for the losers, Abby Riggs (substituting for Chris Maloney) and Gaston von Wernich had two each with Maloney having one.
The second game of day two saw Bill Freeman and Jesse Bray’s Corleone/La Quinta defeat Steven Armour and Craig Steinke’s Shanghai/Stormcat by a score of 8 – 7.
The younger Bray led his team with three counters. Fergus Gould and Kimo Huddleston had two each and Freeman had one.
The replies for Shanghai/Stormcat came from Santiago von Wernich with four and singles from Steinke, Armour, and Rob Yackley.
The win put Freeman and Bray into a share of top spot with one game to play before the final.
Ohana Tornament; Standings
Hidden Creek/Pink Deco 1 0 1 +1 net 3pts, Corleone/La Quinta 1 0 1 +1 3, Ohana/Tri Tech 1 1 0 +4 2, Shanghai/Stormcat 0 2 0 -6 0.
tony gregg