By Alex Webbe
The Wanderers received one goal by handicap from the Port Mayaca lineup and never
trailed as they scored a 10-9 win in the opening game of the 2011 USPA National
20-Goal Tournament hosted by the Grand Champions Polo Club Tuesday morning.
Joining a field of six teams, 5-goaler Brandon Phillips scored the opening goal from
the field for an early 2-0 advantage. Stevie Orthwein responded with a goal for Port Mayaca, but a second goal from Sugar Erskine put the Wanderers on top of a 3-1 score.
The pace quickened in the second chukker with Luis Escobar scoring from the field
for Port Mayaca. Bo Goodman took the ensuing throw-in and raced 150 yards down the field for a score to give the Wanderers a 4-2 lead. Attacks by both sides were turned aside, and the chukker ended with Port Mayaca trailing by two goals.
Erskine scored his second goal of the game to open the third period, but Port Mayaca
came storming back. Leo Mandelbaum took control of the ball and the game as the third chukker progressed. Mandelbaum scored consecutive goals to end the chukker with Port Mayaca within striking distance of the Wanderers, trailing by a single goal, 5-4.
Phillips scored the first goal of the second half with a well-placed shot from the field
that traveled 75 yards. Port Mayaca was fouled while mounting an attack near the Wanderers’ goal, and Orthwein converted the penalty shot for a goal. After four chukkers of play, the Wanderers held on to a narrow one goal lead, 6-5.
Mandelbaum’s third goal of the game tied it up at 6-6 for the first time, but Phillips
answered with a pair f goals for the Wanderers (one from the field one on a
penalty shot) to lead 8-6. Orthwein closed out the scoring in the chukker with a penalty conversion to cut the lead back to a single goal, 8-7.
Phillips put the Wanderers up by two goals, 9-7, on a penalty conversion in the sixth,
but J. J. Celis drove the ball through the goal posts for Port Mayaca to
tighten it up at 9-8. Phillips added another from the field, 10-8, but Orthwein scored his third goal of the day, cutting the margin to a single goal, once again, 10-9.
Port Mayaca continued to press its attack, but time ran out and the Wanderers rode
off with the 10-9 win.
Phillips led all scoring with six goals. Erskine accounted for a pair of goals and Goodman scored once for the win. The Wanderers received one goal by handicap.
Orthwein set the pace for Port Mayaca with four goals. Mandelbaum scored three times and Escobar and Celis added single goals.
Action will continue in the 2011 USPA National 20-Goal Championship at the Grand
Champions Polo Club on Wednesday, October 9 with an 11am match between KIG
Investments (Bash Kazi, Hector Galindo, Jeff Blake and Tommy Biddle) and Audi
Polo (Melissa Ganzi, Juan Bollini, Kris Kampsen and Jason Crowder).