American 8-goaler Nic Roldan scored the winning goal in the 9-8 Audi win in overtime.
Audi (Marc Ganzi, Carlitos Gracida, Nic Roldan and Nico Pieres) won their opening match in the International Polo Club’s Joe Barry Memorial Cup game Saturday afternoon in a 9-8 win over Faraway (Hutton Goodman, Martin Pepa, Santiago Chavanne and Mariano Gonzalez), but they needed an overtime goal from Nic Roldan to do it.
With five other games postponed due to wet fields, the Audi-Faraway game was the only 20-goal action that was played in the opening round of the Joe Barry Memorial Cup.
Audi captain Marc Ganzi scored the first goal of the match on a beautifully executed cut-shot that he drove through the goal posts at the 30-second horn for the only score of the opening chukker, 1-0.
Nic Roldan converted a 30-yard penalty shot to make it 2-0, as Audi seemed to be taking control of the game. Mariano Gonzalez cut into the Audi lead as he carried the ball some 200 yards for the final goal of the chukker. Audi continued to hold the lead, 2-1.
Roldan opened the scoring in the third as he blistered the ball through the goal posts from 50-yards out, 3-1. Santiago Chavanne tapped in a pass from teammate Martin Pepa. At the end of the first half, Audi held on to a narrow 3-2 advantage.
In the opening minute of the fourth, Gonzalez stole the ball from Roldan and scored the tying goal, 3-3. Chavanne gave Faraway their first lead of the game with his second goal of the match, 4-3. Gonzalez added a third consecutive Faraway goal, stretching the lead to two goals, 5-3. Roldan converted a penalty shot in the final seconds of the chukker as Faraway rode off the field with a narrow 5-4 lead.
Fifth period action saw Roldan tie it up in the first minute of play, 5-5. Pepa scored two straight goals as Faraway regained their two goal lead, 7-5. Roldan scored on a penalty shot and then cashed in on a technical foul called against Faraway’s Pepa, taking the ball from the midfield placement and racing down the field to score in the final seconds of the chukker, 7-7.
Chavanne’s third goal of the match put Faraway back on top, 8-7, but Audi wasn’t ready to concede. Nico Pieres took a pass from Ganzi midway down the field and carried it through the goal posts for an 8-8 tie, forcing a sudden-death overtime period.
After a brief intermission, the two teams returned to the field. Gonzalez passed up a golden opportunity as he missed on a 40-yard penalty shot, and Audi took advantage of it. Less than three minutes into the overtime period Faraway fouled. Roldan rode to the penalty line and converted a short penalty shot for the winning goal, 9-8.
Roldan scored four of his game high six goals on penalty shots. Pieres added a pair of goals and Ganzi scored once for the win. Gonzalez and Chavanne scored three goals apiece for Faraway. Pepa added two goals in the loss.
Joe Barry Memorial cup play is slated to continue on Sunday, January 12th with five games scheduled to take place. Two 10AM games will feature Flight Operations (Melissa Ganzi, Fred Mannix, Miguel Astrada and Juan Bollini) vs. Lechuza Caracas (Victor Vargas, Mariano Gracida, Pablo MacDonough and Nico Espain) and a second game fielding Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel, Lucas Criado, Facundo Pieres and Marcos Alberdi). Two more games are slated to be played simultaneously at noon with Palm Beach Illustrated (Jared Zenni, Tommy Collingwood, Magoo Laprida and Facundo Obregon) battling Coca-Cola (Gillian Johnston, Jeff Hall, Julio Arellano and Nick Morrison). The second midday match pits Los Machitos/Heathcote (Steve Lefkowitz, Matias Magrini, Mariano Aguerre and a TBA) against El Cabure (Federico Virasoro, Carlucho Arellano, Agustin Merlos and Stevie Orthwein).
The feature match of the game kicks off at 3PM with Las Monjitas (1-0) facing a 1-0 Valiente team (Bob Jornayvaz, Santi Torres, Sapo Caset and Roberto Zedda).