Polito Pieres scores twelve goals in Villa Del Lago 17-13 win over Tonaka Tuesday afternoon in Ylvisaker Cup play.
(Photo by Alex Pacheco)
Argentine 9-goaler Polito Pieres led Villa Del Lago (Jim Zenni, Agustin Obregon, Polito Pieres and Julian de Lusarreta) to a 17-13 win over Tonkawa (Jeff Hildebrand, Gonzalo Deltour, Inaki Laprida and Jeff Blake) Tuesday afternoon in the 2015 Ylvisaker Cup at the International Polo Club. Pieres scorched Tonkawa for twelve goals on the day as Villa Del Lago registered a commanding 17-13win.
Polito Pieres wasted little time in displaying his talented mallet skills as he scored the first two goals of the game (the first on a 60-yardpenalty conversion). Agustin Obregon made it 3-0 with Tonkawa having no answer for the talented Pieres in the opening minutes of play. Inaki Laprida finally got Tonkawa on the scoreboard with a goal from the field with 2:12 left in the chukker. With just 35 seconds remaining in the first period, a Villa Del Lago foul in the goal mouth resulted in a Penalty 1, awarding a goal to Tonkawa, 3-2. An ensuing throw-in front of the Villa Del Lago goal was cleared and headed in the opposite direction when possession changed hands. It was now Tonkawa in control of the ball and heading toward the Villa Del Lago goal, once again. With three seconds on the clock, Gonzalo Deltour drove the ball between the goalposts to tie the game at 3-3.
There was no mistaking who was going to carry the ball for Villa Del Lago, but the expert ball handling of the Argentine star could not be stopped. Pieres scored twice from the field in less than three minutes before converting a 30-yard penalty shot for a 6-3 advantage. Pieres scored his fourth goal of the chukker with 47 seconds left for an impressive 7-3 lead. The Tonkawa attack failed to score and rode off of the field trailing by four goals.
Deltour scored on a 30-yard penalty conversion, cutting the lead down to three goals, 7-4, when Villa Del Lago took over again. Consecutive goals from the field from Julian de Lusarreta were capped by a closing goal from Pieres for the 10-4 halftime lead.
Tonkawa had no answer for Pieres as he scored in the first minute of the fourth chukker, 11-4. Pieres added a 40-yard penalty shot for a goal, 12-4, before Tonkawa finally showed some offense. Tonkawa team captain Jeff Hildebrand scored his first goal of the day with 3:25 on the clock, 12-5. Jeff Blake and Deltour added single goals from the field to make it 12-7, and a final penalty conversion from Deltour had Tonkawa back to within four goals of Villa Del Lago, 12-8.
Pieres and de Lusarreta added two goals apiece for Villa Del Lago in fifth chukker action (one of the Pieres goals came on a 30-yard penalty shot). Deltour scored on a pair of 60-yard penalty shots for Tonkawa, but they lost ground again, trailing by six goals, 16-10.
Deltour went to work in the opening minutes, scoring consecutive goals that cut the Villa Del Lago lead down to four goals, 16-12. A Pieres goal stemmed the momentum, stretching the lead back to five goals, 17-12. With time running out on Tonkawa, Deltour scored the final goal of the game as Villa Del Lago rode off the field with the 17-13 victory.
Pieres scored twelve goals on the day (four on penalty shots). De Lusarreta added four goals and Obregon chipped in a goal for the win. Deltour scored four of his team-high nine goals on penalty conversions. Hildebrand, Laprida and Blake each scored once and the team received one goal on a Penalty 1.
Ylvisaker Cup play continues on Wednesday with a 3pm Ylvisaker Cup match between Coca-Cola (2-0) and Gateway Merchant (0-2).