10-goaler Facundo Pieres continues to drive the King Power Foxes attack as they attempt to defend their 2015 Cartier Queens Cup title this year.
With Guy Schwarzenbach filling in for Top Srivaddhanaprabha, the King Power Foxes (Guy Schwarzenbach, Pepito Araya, Gonzalito Pieres and Facundo Pieres) took it out on La Indiana (Michael Bickford, Julian de Lusarreta, Agustin Merlos and Nic Roldan) Thursday afternoon at Billingbear Park in defense of their 2015 Cartier Queens Cup title by scoring a 12-9 win.
Facundo Pieres scored the first goal of the game on a 60-yard penalty shot followed by a tying goal from the field from Julian de Lusarreta, 1-1. Facundo Pieres scored the final goal of the chukker as the King Power Foxes left the field at the end of the opening chukker with a 2-1 lead.
The Pieres brothers took control of the second period with Facundo Pieres scoring the first goal of the chukker on a breakaway for a 3-1 lead. Nic Roldan scored on a neck-shot for La Indiana to make it 3-2. Back-to-back goals from Gonzalito Pieres had the King Power Foxes in the lead, 5-2. Agustin Merlos cut the lead back to two goals, 5-3, with his first goal of the game. Gonzalito Pieres closed out the chukker with his third goal of the period, boosting the King Power Foxes in front by three goals, 6-3.
Two more King Power goals opened the third period, 8-3. La Indiana team captain Michael Bickford scored the final goal of the half. After three chukkers of play it was King Power with the 8-4 lead.
La Indiana had settled into the game in the fourth chukker, and matched the King Power foxes goal for goal. Gonzalito Pieres opened the scoring in the second half with a goal from the field, 9-4. Merlos converted a penalty shot from 40-yards out to make it 9-5. Bickford and Gonzalito Pieres traded goals to end the chukker with La Indiana still trailing by four goals,10-6.
A bolder La Indiana team took the field in the fifth chukker. Roldan opened the scoring, beating both Pieres brothers to score and make it 10-7. A King Power foul sent Merlos to the penalty line where he converted from 40-yards out, cutting the King Power lead to two goals, 10-8. Facundo Pieres scored the final goal of the chukker on a pass from Gonzalito Pieres that had King Power on top of an 11-8 score.
The two teams battled evenly through the final chukker with each scoring on a penalty conversion. Merlos cut the lead back to two goals on a 30-yard penalty shot with Facundo Pieres scoring the final goal of the game on a penalty shot for a 12-9 King Power win.
Britannia El Remanso 16, Sifani 7
In the afternoon match, Britannia El Remanso (Charley Hanbury, Ollie Cudmore, James Beim and James Harper) hammered Sifani (Hilali Noordeen, Juan Gris Zavaleta, Luke Tomlinson and J.P. Clarkin) 16-7 in Cartier Queens Cup play at Coworth Park for their first win of the tournament.
Sifani received one goal by handicap from the 22-goal Britannia El Remanso foursome but were outscored 6-2 in the opening three chukkers, falling behind 6-3 at the end of the first half.
Sifani played Britannia El Remanso even in the fourth chukker. Goals from James Beim and James Harper (penalty conversion) were countered by back-to-back goals from Juan Griz Zavaleta as Britannia El Remanso maintained their three goal lead, 8-5. The balance of the game, however, belonged to Britannia El Remanso.
Three fifth chukker goals by Britannia El Remanso went unanswered as Sifani was shutout for the third time in the match, falling behind by six goals, 11-5.
Sixth chukker goals from Harper, Hanbury and Cudmore stretched the Britannia El Remanso lead to nine goals, 14-5. Sifani team captain Hilali Noordeen scored on a long run, 14-6, but the die was cast. Two more goals from Britannia El Remanso had them in the lead by ten goals, 16-6 before Zavaleta’s final goal mercifully ended the game with a 16-7 Britannia El Remanso win.
The second round of lay in the 2016 Cartier Queens Cup will resume on Saturday with Apes Hill (George Hanbury, Mark Tomlinson, Eduardo Astrada and Alec White) takes on HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Ignacio Toccalino, Pelon Stirling and Sebastien Pailloncy) in a noon contest at Coworth. Apes Hill will be looking to score their second consecutive win while HB Polo will be trying to level their record at 1-1 after losing their opener.
In the second game of the day Valiente (Rob Jornayvaz, Martin Valent, Guillermo Terrera and Alejo Taranco) and RH Polo (Ben Soleimani, Ali Patterson, Rodrigo Andrade and Nico Pieres) will both be looking for their first win of the tournament after dropping opening games.