Report By Wiley Uretz | Photos by Kim Kumpart
This last Saturday at Santa Barbara we had two exciting games. The first game was the consolation finals which pitted Cotterel against Cobra. Both of these teams are new to Santa Barbara and have been great additions to this highly competitive 12 goal season. Cotterel consisted of A rated Jenny Lutrell, 3 goaler Ignacio Saracco, 4 goaler Luis Saracco and 5 goaler Rueben Coscia while their counterpart Cobra was made up of A Alvaro Fernandez, 1 goaler Isaac Sepulveda, 4 goaler Julio Gracida and 7 goaler Memo Gracida. This game appeared to be a runaway in the 5 chukker with Cobra up by a large 5 goals 10 to 5 however Cotterel was determined to go down fighting scoring 3 goals in the sixth chukker before running out of time thanks to the Gracida’s wise clock management. The high scorers in this game were Memo Gracida and Ruben Coscia both with four goals.
The second game on Sunday was the Finals of the Pope challenge and it turned out to be a real nail biter. Both the teams in the finals, Antelope and Grants Farm, are hometown teams who have been playing at Santa Barbara for a long time and are always great competitors. Grants Farm was made up of Justin Klentner at 2 goals, Artie Cameron at 2 goals, Andy Busch at 3 goals and Santiago Wulff at 5 goals. Their opponent Antelope consisted of Geoff Palmer at A, Jared Sheldon at 1 goal, Santiago Trotz 5 goals and Jason Crowder 6 goals.
Andy Busch' horse named Flamingo won Best Playing Pony.
This game initially looked like it might be a low scoring one with both teams only managing to score 1 goal in the first chukker. However by half time the score line had really picked up with Grants Farm scoring 5 to Antelopes 4 thus taking a 6 to 5 lead in to half time. After half time both teams stayed neck and neck matching each other’s every goal; which took a very thorough team effort on the part of both teams with every player contributed at least one goal.
Santiago Trotz won Most Valuable Player.
The two players that really stood out in leading their teams to the exciting finish were both named Santiago one being Santiago Trotz with 5 goals (3 in the second half) and the other being Santiago Wulff with 7 goals (4 in the second half). In the final chukker Grants Farm looked like they were going to be home free jumping out to a 3 goal lead in the first couple minutes but Antelope was not going to go down easy scoring two goals of their own to make it a one goal game. Then Grants Farm’s Santiago Wulff made a heady play to go back up by two but with about 1 minute and 30 seconds left Antelope received a penalty 2, which was converted by team owner Geoff Palmer, making it a 1 goal game with one minute left. Unfortunately for Antelope though Santiago Wulff won the next lineup and made the veteran play of just hitting it out and letting time expire. It was a great game and all the players gave their best effort. The MVP was Antelope’s Santiago Trotz and Best Playing Pony was awarded to Andy Busch’s Flamingo.