By Alex Webbe
Stuart “Sugar” Erskine scored the winning goal for Isla Carroll (2-1) in a “sudden-death” overtime period of play in Friday’s semifinals of the Joe Barry Memorial Cup at the International Polo Club in Wellington to knock previously undefeated Skeeterville (2-1) to earn a berth in Sundays finals against a very talented Catamount (2-1) team.
“It could have gone either way,” said Erskine following the match. “Both teams had missed opportunities, both of us had our chances, we just happened to have scored first.”
The goal was Erskine’s fifth of the game, and capped a comeback that had Isla Carroll trailing in four of the first six chukkers.
“In the fifth chukker, “Bete” (Isla Carroll 7-goaler Sylvestre Donovan) told us to just man-up, take a man and the ball would come to us,” offered Shane Rice, “and it worked. “We found the ball and had scoring opportunities.”
Rice, a usually solid penalty shooter was good on only three out of eight attempts, but said that it didn’t affect the rest of his play.
“It just wasn’t my day at the penalty line today,” he said. “I just put my head down and pressed on, I knew that we could do it.”
Julio Arellano led Skeeterville with eight goals, scoring four times from the field and converting four penalty shots, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.
Isla Carroll kept it close throughout the match, trailing by a single goal after the fourth (9-8) and fifth (10-9) chukkers.
“We had to continue to press the attack,” said Donovan, “if we marked our opponents, I knew that we would get the scoring opportunities.”
Arellano put Skeeterville ahead 11-9 to open the sixth chukker, but three consecutive goals by Isla Carroll had them trailing with less than a minute to play in regulation time. Arellano’s eighth goal of the game knotted it at 12-12 seconds before time expired.
The “sudden-death” period lasted little more than two minutes when Erskine scored on a breakaway. The win eliminated Skeeterville and advanced Isla Carroll to Sunday’s finals of the Joe Barry Memorial Cup against Catamount.
In action in the subsidiary play, Bud Light/ERG cruised to a 10-6 win over Tommy Lee Jones and his San Saba teammates, in spite of two goals from the Oscar nominated actor/polo player. Nine-goaler Paco de Narvaez accounted for four goals in the loss.
San Saba kept it close, trailing just 4-3 at the end of the first half, but couldn’t shut down the aggressive play of Bud Light/ERG in the final three chukkers.
Bud Light/ERG put up three unanswered goals in the fourth chukker, and in spite of three goals from Narvaez in the fifth, kept an 8-6 lead on the strength of a Gracida penalty conversion.
Sixth chukker goals from Gracida and Roberto Gonzales closed out the scoring for the game.
Julio Gracida led the Bud Light/ERG scoring with four goals as they rallied from a narrow 4-3 halftime lead to take the game. Hector Galindo added three goals, Roberto Gonzalez scored twice and Martin Munoz (substituting for Scott Wood) scored once.
Patagones closed out the action on the day by scoring the winning goal in overtime to capture a 12-11 game from a very competitive Mt. Brilliant foursome.
“We made a couple of mistakes and let the game get away from us a couple of times,” said Mt. Brilliant 8-goaler Jeff Hall, “but all in all, I thought we played well.”
Mt. Brilliant went up 11-9 on two Jeff Blake goals in the sixth chukker only to have Mariano Gonzalez convert a penalty goal and Carlucho Arellano tie it on a goal from the field. Carlos Avendano stroked through the winning goal in “sudden death” overtime for the win.
. Carlos Avendano scored four times on the day, including the winning goal in overtime. Mariano Gonzalez also scored four goals while Carlucho Arellano added three goals and Gonzalo Avendano added a goal.
Jeff Hall and Kris Kampsen led the Mt. Brilliant scoring with four goals apiece. Jeff Blake added two goals and Hutton Goodman scored once in a losing effort.