Audi vs. Lechuza Caracas

04/01/2012, 4:00 pm | Piaget Field

Lechuza Caracas - 14, Audi - 8

It was déjà vu for the Audi polo team Sunday afternoon in the feature match of the day in the 2012 Nespresso United States Open championships as Lechuza Caracas dominated Audi from start to finish in their 14-8 win.

It was just over a year ago that Lechuza Caracas scored an 8-6 win over Audi in the finals of the 2011 US Open, leading 5-2 at halftime and giving up three goals to Audi in the final chukker.

“The horses really performed magnificently today,” said Lechuza Caracas team captain Victor Vargas. “The team went well,” he smiled.

Marc Ganzi put Audi in front with the first goal of the game in the opening minute of play. Lechuza Caracas 10-goaler Sapo Caset tied it up about halfway through the chukker with a 60-yard penalty conversion, 1-1. Vargas put Lechuza Caracas ahead, 2-1, with a goal from the field. Audi 10-goaler Gonzalito Pieres tied it up at 2-2 to close out the chukker.

The second period belonged to Lechuza Caracas as they outscored Audi 5-1. Caset opened the scoring with a penalty conversion followed by a goal from the field for Vargas as Lechuza Caracas moved out in front, 4-2. Gonzalito Pieres stopped the bleeding with a 60-yard penalty conversion for a goal with less than two minutes left in the period, 4-3, when Caset took charge. Caset added two goals from the field from throw-ins in under a minute to give Lechuza Caracas a 6-3 advantage.

Lechuza Caracas 10-goaler, Juan Martin Nero, scored the first goal of the third chukker on a spectacular 200-plus yard run down the field, four minutes into the period. A minute later Caset converted a penalty shot for a goal and Lechuza Caracas led, 8-3. Gonzalito Pieres scored the final goal of the chukker on a penalty shot, but Audi trailed 8-4 at the end of the first half.

Caset scored from the field early in the fourth period, 9-4, but Audi answered back. A penalty goal from Nico Pieres had it at 9-5 until Caset hammered the ball through the goalposts with two minutes left in the game for a 10-5 lead.

Gonzalito Pieres scored on a penalty early in the fifth, 10-6, before three consecutive Lechuza Caracas goals (two from Nero and a penalty goal from Caset) ended the chukker with Audi trailing by seven goals, 13-6.

Nero scored a goal from the field in the final period of play for a 14-6 Lechuza Caracas lead as Audi continued to struggle with its offense. A pair of penalty goals from Gonzalito Pieres closed out the game in a 14-8 Lechuza Caracas victory.

“I think that the horses made the difference today,” said Nero, as he agreed with Vargas. “They (Audi) are a very difficult team to play against,” he added, but today everything seemed to work for us”

Heaping praise on teammate Facundo Obregon, Nero said “He’s going to be a great player. He rides hard and fast and has a very good stick,” he said. “He played very well for us today.”

Sapo Caset was just happy to have won. “It’s is so nice to play with a team like this,” said Caset. “We have a great team patron, and hard-working teammates. We are looking forward to a very successful Open this year,” he said.

Caset led all scoring with eight goals (three on penalties). Nero added four goals and Vargas contributed two goals to the win.

Gonzalito Pieres scored six times (five on penalties). Ganzi scored a goal from the field, while Nico Pieres chipped in a penalty goal in the fourth chukker.

Facundo Obregon, Lechuza Caracas’s hard-charging Number 4 was named MVP while Isabella, a ten-year-old grey thoroughbred mare owned by Lechuza Caracas and played by Nero (in the third and the sixth chukkers) was honored as Best Playing Pony.