Adolfo Cambiaso led La Dolfina to their 35th straight win in Triple Crown competition Saturday afternoon in a 12-5 win over La Aguada-Las Monjitas in the first semifinal of the 2016 Tortugas Open.
In a defensive opening chukker of the 2016 Tortugas Open Miguel Novillo Astrada scored the first goal of the game for La Aguada-Las Monjitas (Alejandro Novillo Astrada, Eduardo. Novillo Astrada, Miguel Novillo Astrada and Ignacio Novillo Astrada). Pablo MacDonough leveled the score at 1-1 for La Dolfina (Adolfo Cambiaso, David Stirling, Pablo MacDonough and Juan Martin Nero) to end the period as both teams attempted to settle in to the first semifinal of the tournament.
With the first of five Cuartetera clones underneath him, Adolfo Cambiaso led a La Dolfina charge in the second chukker that put them on top, 4-1. Single goals from Cambiaso, Pelon Stirling and Juan Martin Nero gave the defending champions a three goal lead, 4-1. Eduardo Novillo Astrada closed out the period with his first goal of the game. La Aguada-Las Monjitas left the field trailing 4-2 after the first two chukkers of play.
Goals were scarce in the third chukker with each team held to a single goal. Cambiaso scored for La Dolfina with Miguel Novillo Astrada adding a goal to the La Aguada-Las Monjitas total. After three periods La Dolfina continued to lead by two goals, 5-3.
La Aguada-Las Monjitas pressed their defense in the fourth chukker, holding La Dolfina to a single goal from Cambiaso. La Dolfina-La Aguada was unable to score and fell behind by three goals, 6-3, after four periods of play.
Fifth period goals from Cambiaso and MacDonough extended the La Dolfina lead to four goals as the La Aguada-Las Monjitas defense was unable to hold. La Aguada-Las Monjitas showed a spark of life with penalty Miguel Novillo Astrada scoring his third goal of the day but trailed, 8-4.
The La Dolfina attack continued to pound the La Aguada-Las Monjitas defenders into the sixth chukker. Two more goals went unanswered as La Aguada-Las Monjitas found themselves trailing by six goals, 10-4, with one chukker remaining in regulation time.
It seemed only fitting that the top-rated Back in the game, 10-goaler Juan Martin Nero, should score La Dolfina’s final two goals of the day in their resounding 12-5 win over La Aguada-Las Monjitas. Nero’s defense was bolstered by teammates Stirling, MacDonough and Cambiaso as they never allowed La Aguada-Las Monjitas to score more than a single goal in any chukker and held them scoreless twice over the course of the match. Nacho Novillo Astrada scored the only goal for the brothers from Open Door, Argentina in the final period.
La Dolfina will defend their Tortugas Open title against the winner of Sunday’s 3:30pm game between Ellerstina (Facundo Pieres, Gonzalo Pieres, Polito Pieres and Nico Pieres) and Alegría (Guillermo Caset, Hilario Ulloa, Lucas Monteverde and Fred Mannix).