Villa Del Lago and Orchard Hill Remain Unbeaten; Flight Options Wins Debut in 2015 Joe Barry Cup Play at International Polo Club Palm Beach

Polo News

Villa Del Lago and Orchard Hill Remain Unbeaten; FlexJet Wins Debut
January 11, 2015
By Alex Webbe - Wellington FL

Orchard Hill 12, Merchant Hub 11
Sunday, January 11, 2015 - 10:00 am

Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel, Lucas Criado, Facundo Pieres and Remy Muller) registered their second consecutive win in the 20-goal Joe Barry Memorial Cup 20-goal competition Sunday morning at the International Polo Club with a 12-11 victory over Merchant Hub (Scott Swerdlin, Marianito Obregon, Facundo Obregon and Luis Escobar), but Merchant Hub didn’t go quietly.

The 19-gal Merchant Hub lineup received one goal by handicap from Orchard hill and added another to their total after over three scoreless minutes of the first chukker. A penalty conversion by Facundo Obregon had Orchard Hill trailing, 2-0. Facundo Pieres scored a goal from the field for the final goal of the chukker with 2:37 on the clock. Merchant Hub took the early lead, 2-1.

Second period goals from Lucas Criado and Pieres had Orchard Hill on top, 3-2, but with nine seconds left in the chukker Obregon scored the tying goal, 3-3.

Orchard Hill team captain Steve Van Andel gave his team the lead again, 4-3, after scoring his first goal of the game on a 120 yard run. Pieres added two more goals (one on a 60-yard penalty shot) to close out the first half with Orchard Hill in the lead, 6-3.Merchant Hub charged back into the game in the fourth chukker. Goals from Luis Escobar and Obregon (penalty conversion brought Merchant Hub to within a goal of the lead, 6-5. Escobar scored on a difficult angle shot to deadlock it at 6-6.Van Andel put Orchard Hill back in the lead with his second goal of the game, 7-6.

Goals from Pieres and Criado had Orchard Hill leading by three goals, 9-6. Obregon and Pieres exchanged goals in the final four minutes of the chukker, each scoring a pair. Orchard Hill maintained their three goals advantage, 11-8.

Two minutes into the sixth period Pieres scored again, 12-8, when Merchant Hub rallied. Obregon added two goals from the field and one on a penalty conversion, but the rally fell short as Orchard Hill held on for the 12-11 win.

Pieres scored eight times for the Orchard Hill win. Criado and Van Andel added two goals apiece. Merchant Hub got seven goals from Obregon (four on penalty shots). Escobar added three goals and the team received one goal by handicap.

Click here for game photos by Alex Pacheco

FlexJet 8, Lechuza Caracas 7
Sunday, January 11, 2015 - 12:00 noon

With sixteen-year-old Justin Daniels filling in for Melissa Ganzi, FlexJet (Justin Daniels, Guille Aguero, Miguel Novillo Astrada and Juan Bollini) scored an 8-7 win over Lechuza (Victor Vargas, Marcos Alberdi, Juan Martin Nero and Martin Espain) Sunday afternoon in their first Joe Barry Memorial Cup match.

Lechuza took the initiative in the first period, scoring goals from Argentine 10-goaler Juan Martin Nero and teammate Marcos Alberdi. FlexJet was unable to get its offense started and fell behind, 2-0.

FlexJet got over the first chukker assault, as Justin Daniels scored his first goal of the day, 2-1. Nero scored on a 60-yard penalty shot while FlexJet continued to have difficulties coordinating an effective attack and continued to trail, by two goals, 3-1.

Lechuza patron, Victor Vargas, score a goal from the field for a 4-1 lead. Miguel Novillo Astrada responded with a goal for FlexJet to end the first half with Lechuza Caracas on top, 4-2.

Astrada opened the scoring in the second half with a 30-yard penalty conversion for a goal, 4-3. Guille Aguero scored from the field to level the score at 4-4. Consecutive penalty goals from Martin Espain and Nero put Lechuza back on top, 6-4. Astrada scored the final goal of the chukker to cut the Lechuza lead back to a single goal, 6-5.

Both teams dug in defensively in the fourth chukker allowing no goals from the field. A Lechuza foul, however, sent Astrada to the penalty lien where he converted a 40-yardshot for a goal and a 6-6 tie with one period remaining in regulation time.

Espain scored the first goal of the sixth chukker, putting Lechuza in the lead, 7-6, but FlexJet wasn’t through yet. Aguero scored the tying goal, injuring his ankle in the effort. Following a brief time out and an inspection by the medics, Aguero put his boot back on and mounted up. As luck would have it, it was Aguero who scored the final goal of the game for the 8-7 FlexJet win.

Astrada led all scoring with four goals. Aguero scored three times and Justin Daniels added a goal for the victory. Nero scored two of his team high three goals on penalty shots. Espain added two goals (a penalty goal and a goal from the field) with Alberdi and Vargas scoring single goals in the loss.

Click here for game photos by Alex Pacheco

Villa Del Lago13, Coca-Cola 12
Sunday, January 11, 2015 - 3:00 pm

The feature match of the day saw Villa Del Lago (Jim Zenni, Agustin Obregon, Polito Pieres and Julian de Lusarreta) record a 13-11 win over Coca-Cola (Gillian Johnston, Sugar Erskine, Julio Arellano and Mason Wroe) to remain undefeated at 2-0. The loss was the second for Coca-Cola who fell to 0-2.

Argentine 9-goaler Polito Pieres scored the first goal of the game to give Villa Del Lago the early 1-0 lead, but the celebration was short-lived. Less than a minute later Julio Arellano tied it with a 30-yard penalty conversion, 1-1. Pieres responded with60-yard angled shot from the field for his second goal of the game, 2-1. Arellano tied it at 2-2 with 1:35 left in the chukker, and team captain, Gillian Johnston, gave Coca-Cola the lead with the final goal of the period, 3-2, at :52.

Arellano stretched the Coca-Cola lead to two goals, 4-2, with a scoring shot at 5:25 of the second. Pieres responded with a goal from the field just a minute later, 4-3, and teammate Julian de Lusarreta tied it at 4-4 with his first goal of the day. Arellano scored the go-ahead goal with 2:23 on the clock to give the lead to Coca-Cola, 5-4. A penalty and ensuing technical foul called on Pieres allowed Arellano to convert the penalty shot for a goal and watch Pieres get ejected for the remaining 1:23 of the chukker. Playing four on three, Arellano notched another goal to put Coca-Cola on top, 7-4.

Pieres wasted little time redeeming himself for the ejection as he scored the opening goal of the third chukker in the first 25 seconds of play, 7-5. Sugar Erskine scored his first goal of the game to keep Coca-Cola on top by three goals, 8-5. Pieres converted a 40-yard penalty shot to end the scoring in the first half with Villa Del Lago trailing, 8-6.

Goals were hard to come by in the fourth period as Arellano converted a penalty shot with just 3:34 left to play, 9-6. Pieres scored the only goal from the field, but it was Coca-Cola with the 9-7 lead entering the fifth chukker.

Pieres opened the fifth with a penalty goal to cut the Coca-Cola lead to a single goal, 9-8. Arellano converted a penalty shot of his own to push the Coca-Cola lead back to two goals, 10-8. Obregon scored a goal from the field followed by two more goals from Pieres (one on a penalty shot) that gave the lead to Villa Del Lago, 11-10.

Obregon’s second goal of the game opened the scoring in the sixth period, giving Villa Del Lago a two goal lead, 12-10. Erskine scored to cut the Villa Del Lago lead back to a single goal, 12-11. With time running out, Pieres scored the final goal of the game for the hard-fought 12-11 victory.

Pieres led all scoring with ten goals. Obregon scored twice and de Lusarreta added a goal for the win. Arellano scored seven of his team high nine goals on penalty conversions. Erskine was credited with two goals and Johnston scored once in a losing effort.

BPP: "Cordorniz" for Polito Pieres
MVP: Mason Wroe

Click here for game photos by Alex Pacheco

Joe Barry memorial Cup play continues on Wednesday, January 14th with Lucchese (2-0) facing Audi (1-0) in a 1:00 pm game. CT Energia (0-1) will battle Tonkawa (0-1) in a 3:00 pm matchup.