By Alex Webbe
The high-flying Catamount polo team delivered a knock-out punch to Audi in Tuesday’s 18 goal Masters Series competition on the grounds of the Port Mayaca Polo Club.
Playing without its team captain, Scott Devon, the team utilized the services of 17-year-old Tommy Collingwood as it scored a come-from-behind 10-9 win over a stubborn Audi foursome.
Catamount’s Kris Kampsen scored the first goal of the game on a forty-yard penalty shot in first chukker but goals from Audi team captain Marc Ganzi and teammate Gringo Colombres put Audi on top 2-1. Collingwood closed out the scoring with a tying goal, and the chukker ended all even at 2-2.
Brandon Phillips put Catamount up 3-2 with a goal in the second, but the rest of the chukker belonged to Audi. Consecutive goals from Chris Nevins and a goal from Gonzalito Pieres had Audi ahead 5-3 at the end of the second chukker.
Catamount crept closer in the third period with two goals from Phillips (one penalty conversion and one goal from the field) and a goal from Todd Offen. Audi got a penalty goal from Pieres and another goal from the field from Ganzi. Audi held its lead at the half, 7-6.
Pieres converted a penalty shot for Audi in the fourth chukker, but Collingwood scored his second goal of the game to keep Catamount within a goal. Audi was still on top of an 8-7 score.
“We really didn’t press it in the first half,” said Phillips of the Catamount effort in the first half of the game, “but at halftime we told one another that we had to give it our all in the second half.”
The Catamount defense shut out the Audi attack for the first time in the fifth chukker while goals from Kampsen and Phillips put them on top 9-8 going into the sixth.
Pieres scored his fourth goal of the game on a penalty conversion to knot it up at 9-9. But with time running out, an Audi player was whistled for a foul. Kampsen converted the 40-yard penalty shot for the final 10-9 score.
The up and down game had every player on the field scoring at least one goal, and the outcome in doubt until the very end.
With a 4-0 record, Catamount locks up a spot in the finals. At 2-2, Audi finds itself eliminated.
In another close contest, Mt. Brilliant rallied from a three goal deficit in the final chukker to score a 12-11 win over the Memo Gracida-led Piocho Ranch team.
Piocho Ranch jumped out to an early 3-2 lead, and extended it to 6-4 at the end of the second chukker. Shutout defense by Mt. Brilliant in the third period and goals from Sugar Erskine and Stevie Orthwein, however, tied it at the half at 6-6.
Piocho Ranch bounced back in the fourth chukker with three unanswered goals, two more from Julio Gracida and one from T. J. Barrack. The Mt. Brilliant lead was gone. Piocho Ranch held a 9-6 advantage.
Two penalty conversions by Orthwein were countered by Julio Gracida’s seventh goal of the game, and Piocho Ranch held on to an 11-8 edge with seven-and-a-half minutes left to play.
Erskine started the sixth chukker rally with a goal from the field that was followed by another penalty conversion from Orthwein, and two goals from the field by Guille Aguero sealed the deal with Mt. Brilliant riding off the field with a well-earned 12-11 win.
Although Piocho Ranch’s record fell to 2-2, it will go on to meet Catamount in the finals based on its 10-9 win over Audi (2-2). Mt. Brilliant records its first win of the series, and ends the competition with a 1-3 record.