Audi overcomes Las Monjitas in US Open Polo Championship
Gonzalito Pieres was impressive scoring eight times and had an assist, as Audi overwhelmed Las Monjitas in one of the most fiercely contested round matches of the United States Open Polo Championship being played at the International Polo Club in Wellington.
The game started on a very high tone, as both sides wanted to get the opening goal. Four minutes into the match, Marc Ganzi scored the first goal of the day through a field effort and put his foursome ahead on the scoreboard.
Later on, Gonzalito Pieres scored a point from the field and doubled the tally.
However, the strikers of Las Monjitas were not far behind. Eduardo Astrada and Agustin Merlos scored one goal each and tied the score at two-all. Merlos in the last moments of the chukka notched up another point to put Las Monjitas ahead on the scoreboard,
3-2, after the first seven and a half minutes of play.
Merlos connected on a penalty shot at the start of the second frame to increase the Las Monjitas lead in the game. But the lead could not last for long, as Gonzalito responded with a couple of goals and had it all even at four-all. The lead changed hands
with Audi, as Ganzi closed out the second chukka with another goal from the field, 5-4.
The speed of the game continued to accelerate in the third period and two foursomes exchanged a couple of goals in the seven and half minutes of play. Merlos scored off two spot shots in the third set of play and regained a narrow one goal lead, 6-5.
But the attackers of Audi were also on high momentum and bombed forward many strikes. Ganzi and his team-mate Gonzalito converted one penalty shot each. At the halftime, Audi was sitting on top with a 7-6 advantage.
Gonzalito notched up another goal at the start of the second half of play through a penalty conversion while his team-mate Rodrigo Andrade joined him with a field effort.
In a counter-offence, Merlos scored off a couple of spot shots, while Astrada added a goal from the field to tie the score. The two teams took a nine-all deadlock with them to the sidelines with two chukkas left to contest.
The second last chukka was dominated by Audi, who managed two goals while Las Monjitas remained scoreless in the period. Andrade opened the second last round to break the tie, while Gonzalito Pieres, through a lengthy ride marked a goal and doubled the lead
to two goals, 11-9.
Interestingly, the two sides swapped another three goals in the final set of play. Gonzalito and Ganzi nailed two and one goal respectively to expand the Audi lead up to five points.
From the other side, Merlos added two goals while Astrada notched a goal from the field but to no avail. At the final horn, Audi rode away with a 14-12 win.
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