Audi’s Marc Ganzi with the ball in the 11-4 win over Beluga
Friday wins by Audi (Marc Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Brandon Phillips and Juan Bollini) and Newport (Gene Goldstein, Guille Aguero, Luis Escobar and Kaisser Maakar) in Friday’s opening round of play in Grand Champions Polo Club’s 2013 USPA Fall Classic set the scene for Sunday’s 10AM finals.
Audi opened the day in an 11:30 AM match with Beluga (Misha Rodzianko, Leo Mandelbaum, Carlitos Gracida and Joey Casey) on the grounds of Boca Raton’s Palm City Polo Club with Marc Ganzi scoring the opening goal of the match on a 30-yard penalty conversion. Beluga received one goal by handicap from the 13-goal Audi team and got another from Carlitos Gracida for an early 2-1 Beluga lead.
A disciplined Audi defense kept Beluga off of the scoreboard in the second period while goals from Juancito Bollini and Juan Bollini had Audi ahead, 3-2.
Ganzi converted another penalty shot for a goal in the third with the father-son Bollini combination adding two more goals to the Audi total. The first half ended with Audi driving off with a 6-2 advantage.
Gracida opened the second half of the game with a goal from the field for Beluga, but that was the team’s only highlight of the chukker. Audi reeled off three consecutive goals with Juancito Bollini and Juan Bollini registering their third goals of the game while Brandon Phillips scored for the first time on the day. At the end of four chukkers of play, Audi was leading by six goals, 9-3.
Gracida and Phillips traded goals in the fifth and Ganzi scored the final goal of the game from the field for an 11-4 victory.
Ganzi, Juancito Bollini and Juan Bollini scored three goals apiece for Audi. Phillips added two goals for the win. Gracida scored all three goals from the field for Beluga and the team received one goal by handicap.
NEWPORT 9, CASABLANCA 8
Newport earned a berth in the USPA Fall Classic finals with a sixth chukker rally that carried them to a hard-fought 9-8 win over a talented Casablanca side (Grant Ganzi, Matt Coppola, Kris Kampsen and Wes Finlayson).
Casablanca received two goals by handicap from the 13-goal Newport team but it was Newport’s Guille Aguero who led off the scoring with a goal from the field. Teammate Gene Goldstein tied it up at 2-2 on a 40-yard penalty conversion. Matt Coppola put Casablanca back in the lead with his first goal of the day, 3-2.
Newport’s Luis Escobar tied it up at 3-3 on a shot from the field. Grant Ganzi got the lead back for Casablanca in the fourth, scoring the go-ahead goal with just two seconds on the clock. After three chukkers of play Casablanca led, 4-3.
Ganzi and Aguero traded goals to open the fourth as Casablanca maintained the lead, 5-4. Coppola scored the final goal of the chukker with 27 seconds left for a 6-4 Casablanca lead.
Aguero Newport charged into the fifth chukker, tying it up at 6-6 on goals from Aguero and Escobar. Ganzi gave the lead back to Casablanca on a beautifully executed nearside neck shot, 7-6.
Kaisser Maakar scored his first goal of the day to tie it at 7-7 in the sixth. Escobar gave Newport the lead on a goal from the field, 8-7. Kris Kampsen scored his first goal of the game on a 60-yard penalty conversion and it was all even at 8-8 with 37 seconds left in regulation time. The horn sounded and the two teams were headed into sudden-death overtime.
Aguero ended the game in the first 28 seconds of overtime with a goal from the field for the 9-8 Newport win.
Aguero led the Newport attack with four goals. Escobar scored three times while Goldstein and Maakar each added a goal for the victory. Ganzi scored three times for Casablanca. Coppola added two goals and Kampsen scored once on a penalty shot. Casablanca received two goals by handicap.
The finals of the tournament are scheduled to be played between Audi and Newport at 10AM Sunday. The consolation game between Casablanca and Beluga will follow the title game at noon.