By Alex Webbe

 “It just wasn’t our day,” lamented EFG Bank 6-goaler Kris Kampsen.  “They’re a strong team, and today they just outplayed us,” he added.

Injuries are just part of the game of polo, and with team captain Jim Whisenand and 7-goaler Luis Escobar sidelined with injuries, a decimated EFG Bank team found itself on the short end of a 12-6 score in the finals of the IPC Cup Thursday afternoon at the International Polo Club in Wellington.

Escobar’s replacement, 6-goaler Pelon Escapite, was informed the previous night at 8pm that he would be playing, so no practice time was in the cards.

“I’m not making any excuses,” Kampsen said, “but it was the first time playing together for us, and we just didn’t get it together.”

So with Whisenand (detached retina) and Escobar (broken nose, strained neck) anxiously watching on from the team tent at the end of the field, the game began.

Valiente took an early 3-1 lead, picking up a pair of goals from Santiago Bottarro and a single goal from teammate Toto Collardin.  EFG Bank received one goal by handicap but was unable to coordinate its attack in the opening chukker.

Kampsen connected on a penalty shot for a goal in the second, but Collardin responded with a goal from the field for Valiente for a 4-2 lead.

“I don’t know what went wrong,” said Kampsen.  “I was all alone and took a nearside shot at goal from nearly point-blank range and it went wide.”

Kampsen added another goal to the EFG Bank total in the third, a goal from Collardin and a 170-yard individual effort by young Robert Jornayvaz had Valiente leading 6-3 at the end of the first half.

Valiente opened the second half with a flurry of scoring drives.  Collardin scored the opening goal followed by a penalty conversion from Jeff Hall and goal from Bottaro.  Hall made it four goals in a row with his second goal of the chukker for a 10-3 lead.  EFG Bank took a little of the sting out of it with penalty conversions from Kampsen and Andres Weisz, but left the field after four chukkers trailing by five, 10-5.

Valiente coasted through the final two chukkers as an impotent EFG Bank offense put only one more goal on the scoreboard.  Hall added two goals to the Valiente column to end the game with a 12-6 final score.

High-goal action will continue on Friday with the opening round of play in the 2011 USPA Piaget gold Cup.  Orchard Hill is scheduled to play the Hawks at 1pm followed by a 3pm showdown between Faraway and Audi.