Kicking-off the action in the second leg of the Gauntlet of Polo at the National Polo Center- Wellington (NPC), the battle for the USPA Gold Cup began between Shack Attack 2 (Martin ‘Facha’ Valent, Kris Kampsen, Mackenzie Weisz, sub. Ignacio ‘Cubi’ Toccalino) making their 22-goal debut against La Fe (Roberto ‘Robi’ Bilbao, Lucas Diaz Alberdi, Francisco Elizalde, Louis Devaleix), as Aspen (Nicolas ‘Nico’ Saenz, Francisco ‘Pancho’ Bensadon, Rufino Bensadon, Stewart Armstrong) went head-to-head against Dazos (David Farache, Dylan Rossiter, Nicolas ‘Nico’ Pieres, Santiago ‘Santi’ Torres).
Competing solely in the USPA Gold Cup, newcomer Shack Attack 2 kept themselves close to La Fe to open the contest, with Kampsen converting four of five penalty attempts. Answering with six conversions for La Fe, team captain Elizalde lead his team in first half shot attempts and goals, as Bilbao found success on two drives in the field to give La Fe the narrow 8-6 advantage the break. Unleashing their offensive power in the fourth, La Fe began their dominant second half with a run of eight unanswered goals. Efforts from Elizalde, Alberdi and Devaleix combined to create massive separation on the scoreboard, as their defense held Shack Attack 2 to only three shots from the field. Following a goal from Valent at the end of the fifth chukker, two more in the sixth were simply too late to recover from La Fe’s scoring blitz, with Elizalde hitting his twelfth goal to end the match 18-9.
Awarding Dazos one goal on handicap, Armstrong opened the scoring for Aspen where a quick response from Pieres gave Dazos a 3-1 lead. In a match with goals hard to come by, Aspen managed to outshoot Dazos in the field, where a three-goal contribution from the Bensadon’s gave their team a 4-3 lead at the half. Exchanging field goals in the fourth and fifth chukkers, three missed penalty attempts from Rufino Bensadon kept Dazos within striking distance. Combining for just ten shots in the match, Rossiter and Pieres stepped up in the final moments of regulation with back-to-back goals to lift Dazos into the lead. Responding for Aspen at the end of the chukker, Rufino Bensadon managed to force overtime and score the golden goal on a Penalty 2 to deliver Aspen the 8-7 victory.
Upcoming Schedule:
Friday, March 3
Two Trees by Jefferies (0-0) vs Shack Attack (0-0) at 10:00am ET
La Elina (0-0) vs Dutta Corp/Show+ (0-0) at 3:00pm ET
Photo Credit: David Lominska