Fri 13th Feb 2015Orchard Hill remain unbeaten10 goaler Facundo Pieres leads his side to a third victory in the Ylvisaker Cup
Yesterday, the International Polo Club was the scene for a full day of high-goal polo competition in the 20-goal Ylvisaker Cup with four games scheduled for the day. Of the eight teams taking the field, three of them (Casablanca, Orchard Hill and Valiente) entered the day’s competition with 2-0 records, hoping to join Coca-Cola at 3-0 at the end of preliminary play. Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel, Lucas Criado, Facundo Pieres and Remy Muller) and FlexJet (Melissa Ganzi, Gonzalito Pieres, Miguel Novillo Astrada and Cody Ellis) got the day started with a 10am match. Orchard Hill rode onto the field as favourites, not only had they already achieved wins over Enigma and CT Energia, but they also secured last month’s Joe Barry Memorial Cup. Their FlexJet opposition on the other hand had suffered defeats to Valiente and Audi, but a win over Palm Beach Illustrated. Gonzalito Pieres scored the first goal of the day with less than two minutes off the clock, 1-0 but his brother, Orchard Hill’s Facundo Pieres, was quick to reply, and at the half-time mark, the scores read a level 4-4. Once both teams had returned to the pitch for the second half, Facundo Pieres wasted no time in displaying his10-goal form. Producing three quick goals with no reply from FlexJet, Orchard Hill established a 7-4 lead. Astrada and Mueller went on to score one apiece, meaning Orchard Hill maintained an 8-5 edge. The fifth chukka was slow and low scoring, with just Cody Ellis and Lucas Criado managing to find the posts, the 3 goal advantage in favour of Orchard Hill therefore staying in place. Astrada scored at the beginning of the final chukka, bringing FlexJet to within two goals of the lead, 9-7, with another goal coming two minutes later from Gonzalito Pieres, making it a one goal difference with over four minutes left to play. FlexJet mounted charge after charge, but a determined Orchard Hill defence proved to be up to the task. With two minutes on the clock, Mueller was the man who made the difference as he scored his second goal of the game, ending the FlexJet rally and securing a 10-8 victory. Orchard Hill now advance to Sunday’s Quarter Finals with a perfect 3-0 record while FlexJet was eliminated after suffering their third loss in four outings. Next up were Lucchese and Casablanca. The 18-goal Casablanca team (Grant Ganzi, Guille Aguero, Mark Tomlinson and Juan Bollini) received two goals by handicap from Lucchese (John Muse, Magoo Laprida, Nico Pieres and Andres Weisz) and ran it up to an impressive 6-3 lead after the first chukka. Their early lead however didn’t last for long: by the end of the first half the scores read 7-all. Following a half time break, Lucchese returned to the field, and continued from where they had left off, adding two more goals to the board. Casablanca replied, and once again, with just one chukka of play remaining, a 10-10 score meant neither side had any advantage. Tomlinson scored his third goal of the game in the sixth chukker with Laprida and Pieres responding with single goals. Unfortunately for the early leaders, Casablanca, final goals from Aguero and Laprida had Lucchese riding off with the 13-12 win. The loss was the first for Casablanca, who fell to 2-1 while Lucchese scored their second win in three matches. Both teams will advance in the competition. With Casablanca having lost, Valiente remained one of the last unbeaten teams in competition coming into their game against Enigma. The second chukka saw both teams tied; yet an explosive Valiente produced five goals in the third which gave them a 9-5 lead. Valiente managed to maintain their four goal advantage, until the sixth and final chukka when Enigma produced their best polo of the match to score four times in succession. The result: overtime. It didn’t take long to produce a final score, as after just 90 seconds on the clock, Hall scored the winning goal for Enigma to make it 12-11. Both teams will advance to the Semi Finals with 2-1 records. In the final match of the day, Palm Beach Illustrated (Tommy Collingwood, Jared Zenni, Facundo Obregon and Michel Dorignac) met CT Energia (Alessandro Bazzoni, Kris Kampsen, Joao Ganon and Nick Manifold), who were playing for pride as they took their winless record to the field where they exploded with goals galore. Palm Beach Illustrated ran up a 9-5 half time lead and then stretched the lead to seven goals, 12-5 in the fourth. CT Energia continued to press, but aggressive play by both sides resulted in a 15-13 victory for Palm Beach Illustrated. Photograph: Orchard Hill and FlexJet in action yesterday. By Alex Pachecho. | | Other top stories Tue 26th Mar 2024 The U.S. Open Polo Championship Fixture & Teams Tournament begins on Wednesday 27 March
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