By Alex Webbe
Matt Coppola and Marc Ganzi shared MVP honors as GTP scored an 8-5 win over Las Palmas in the finals of the 2008 Turkey Trot tournament that ended the Grand Champions Polo Club’s fall season.
Las Palmas received two goals by handicap and Eduardo Barco added a third in the first chukker before the GTP offense got its game going. Marc Ganzi converted a penalty shot and Matt Coppola converted from the field to trail Las Palmas, but GTP was just getting a second breath. In the second and third chukkers John Ylvisaker and Marc Ganzi combined for four unanswered goals. Ylvisaker put the ball through from the field twice while Ganzi converted penalty shots in both the second and third chukkers. A solid defensive effort shutout the Las Palmas efforts to score as GTP ran off with a 6-3 lead.
Las Palmas finally got on the scoreboard in the fourth and final chukker with goals from Javier Guerra and Eduardo Barco, but it was a case of too little too late. Ganzi added two more goals for GTP with one from the field and another on a penalty conversion for the final 8-5 winning margin.
Ganzi led all scoring with five goals on the day. Ylvisaker accounted for the other two in the win.
Eduardo Barco led Las Palmas with two goals. Javier Guerra added a goal on a penalty shot and they received two goals by handicap.
PORT MAYACA 6, GRAND CHAMPIONS 1
The futility of the Grand Champions attack was never more apparent than in the consolation match of the Turkey Trot. Port Mayaca bulldozed the host team 6-1 in a match that had Grand Champions scoreless until the final chukker.
“We were supposed to score?” joked Juan Salinas, the only member of the team to score a goal in the game.
“We had a lot of fun,” added team captain Melissa Ganzi. “We got to play competitive polo with friends, and that’s always a good thing.”
There was an equal amount of humor shared at the Port Mayaca camp after the game. Former 6-goaler Steve Orthwein showed dim flashes of his earlier days as he accounted for five of the team’s six goals.
“He was amazing,” offered son and teammate Stevie Orthwein. “He couldn’t miss.”
Port Mayaca’s Number 2, Leo Mandelbaum, accounted for Port Mayaca’s sixth goal on a penalty conversion. Scott Swerdlin played a solid Back position in the win.
Steve Orthwein was the consensus MVP of the game.