L to R-Orchard Hill’s Remy Muller shadows Lucchese 4-goaler Geronimo Obregon in semifinal action of the Joe Barry memorial Cup at the International Polo Club.
(Photo by Alex Pacheco)
Wednesday’s second semifinal match of the 2015 Joe Barry Memorial Cup resumed play on Thursday morning at 11AM with Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel, Lucas Criado, Facundo Pieres and Remy Muller) beating Lucchese (Benjamin Avendano, Magoo Laprida, Nico Pieres and Geronimo Obregon) 14-13 in a game that went down to the wire.
The Wednesday match was interrupted with 2:47 left to play in the fourth chukker, following a collision that sent horse and rider (Andres Weisz, suspected shoulder injury) to the ground.
Goals from Remy Muller and Facundo Pieres were answered by a goal from Nico Pieres on a 40-yard penalty shot. Orchard Hill took the early lead, 2-1.
Nico Pieres tied it up in the opening minute of the second period with his second goal of the game. The two teams battled through a scoreless four minutes of play until Facundo Pieres buried a neck shot to give the lead back to Orchard Hill, 3-2. In the final seconds of the chukker Facundo Pieres stole the ball from Magoo Laprida and drove the ball through the goalposts from 35-yards out to end the chukker with Orchard Hill in front, 4-2.
Third period action began with Nico Pieres scoring the first goal of the period once in the first 30 seconds of play, cutting the lead back to a single goal, 4-3, when the Orchard Hill attack came alive. Two minutes later Facundo Pieres scored from the field for the 5-3, two goal lead. Lucchese seemed to have no answer for Facundo as he scored on a pass from Steve Van Andel at the 2:34 mark, 6-3, and closed out the chukker with his third goal of the period on a well-executed neck shot to give Orchard Hill a 7-3 halftime lead.
Lucchese fought back in the fourth with Andres Weisz getting on the scoreboard with a goal in the opening 20 seconds of the chukker, 7-4. Nico Pieres converted a penalty shot just a minute later, 7-5, and added a second goal from the field that cut the Orchard Hill lead to a single goal, 7-6. Criado finally stopped the bleeding with a goal at the 3:51 mark to put Orchard Hill up by two goals, 8-6. A violent collision between players at 2:47 sent Weisz and his horse to the ground. After several minutes of medical assistance Weisz was removed from the field and an alternate was recruited. It was decided that with the growing darkness, the match would be suspended until the following morning at 11AM, and the teams left the field with Orchard Hill in possession of a two goal lead, 8-6.
At the resumption of play the following day (with John Muse replacing Avendano in the Lucchese lineup), Facundo Pieres converted a penalty shot to extend the Orchard Hill lead to three goals, 9-6. Geronimo Obregon (replacing Andres Weisz-injured shoulder) responded with a goal from the field with just over two minutes left in the fourth, 9-7. Nico Pieres scored to cut the Orchard Hill lead back to a single goal, 9-8, but older brother Facundo Pieres closed out the scoring with a 60-yard penalty conversion for a 10-8advantage.
Lucchese was not about to go away as they opened the fifth period with a 30-yard penalty goal from Nico Pieres, 10-9. Criado fired back with a goal for Orchard Hill, 11-9, but Lucchese’s replacement player, Geronimo Obregon, came through with his second goal of the game that had them breathing down Orchard Hill’s neck, 11-10.
Facundo Pieres displayed the talent that made him a 10-goal player as he took control of the ball deep in his own end of the field and carried it 280 yards downfield for a goal, 12-10. Nico Pieres countered by converting a 40-yard penalty shot ninety seconds later, 12-11 and Obregon tied the game at 12-12 with his third goal of the game. Facundo Pieres gave the lead back to Orchard Hill with a 40-yard penalty shot, 13-12, but there was no letup from the Lucchese attack. With 1:12 on the clock, an Orchard Hill foul sent Nico Pieres to the penalty line where he converted a 30-yard shot to tie it at 13-13. With time running out, Facundo Pieres took control of the ball at midfield and wove his way through the Lucchese players to score the winning goal, 14-13, sending his team to the final of the 2015 Joe Barry Memorial Cup.
Facundo Pieres led all scoring with 11 goals on the day (three on penalty shots). Criado scored twice and Muller added a goal in the Orchard Hill victory. Nico Pieres scored nine goals for Lucchese (seven on penalty shots). Obregon added three goals and Weisz was credited with a goal in the loss.
Orchard Hill will go on to face Villa Del Lago (Jim Zenni, Agustin Obregon, Polito Pieres and Julian de Lusarreta) in Sunday’s 3PM tournament final.