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Champions
again, Crab Orchard wins US Open
By Alex Webbe
Crab Orchard
made it two in a row as it scored an impressive 15-12 win over a
veteran Las Monjitas team Sunday afternoon at the International
Polo Club in Wellington.
In what Crab
Orchard looked at as a rematch of its ill-fated 12-9 loss to Los
Monjitas in the USPA Piaget Gold Cup competition a month ago, there
would be no last chukker rally by Las Monjitas to win the game.
It was Crab orchard 10-goaler Adolfo Cambiaso scoring his sixth
and seventh goal of the day to seal the fate of Las Monjitas in
the Crab Orchard victory.
Action got underway
quickly in the first chukker with two goals coming in less than
ninety seconds of play. Cambiaso opening up the scoring with a long
drive for
a goal for Crab Orchard which was quickly answered by a goal from
Las Monjitas’ Eduardo Astrada.
Nacho Astrada
put Las Monjitas up 2-3, but a second goal from Cambiaso had it
knotted again at 2-2. Nacho Astrada’s second goal of the chukker
returned a
3-2, one goal lead to Las Monjitas, but a foul and an ensuing penalty
conversion by Crab Orchard’s Nachi Heguy ended the chukker
in a 3-3 tie.
The tide began
to turn in Crab Orchard’s favor in the second period. A goal
from Jeff Blake pushed Crab Orchard out to a 4-3 advantage before
Nacho Astrada tied it again at 4-4. Goals from Cambiaso and Heguy
gave Crab Orchard a 6-4 lead until a penalty conversion by Nacho
Astrada made it a one goal game at 6-5. That was when Nachi Heguy
let everyone in the stadium see the beginning of his best performance
of the year. Heguy jumped on the loose ball and drove it down the
field for a goal. Moments later, Nachi intercepted a pass and scored
another Crab Orchard goal for an 8-5 lead. From that point on, Las
Monjitas would struggle to stay in the game.
Crab Orchard
left the field at the end of the first half with a 10-7 lead on
the strength of two goals from Cambiaso (a penalty conversion and
a goal from the field) and was up 12-8 after four chukkers. Brothers
Javier and Nacho Astrada each scored a goal for Las Monjitas to
stay in the game.
Las Monjitas
cut the lead to two goals after the fifth period with Javier Astrada
converting two penalty goals and adding another from the field.
Nachi Heguy converted a Penalty 2 to keep Crab Orchard from being
shut out, but it held on to a two goal lead.
In sixth chukker
action, Las Monjitas got into some foul trouble as they scrambled
to take possession of the ball. Two penalty conversions by Cambiaso
made it 15-11, Crab Orchard, and Las Monjitas saw the writing on
the wall.
Javier Astrada
would score the final goal of the game, but it would be Crab Orchard
who would be sipping the victory champagne on the strength of the
15-12 win. "Winning the Open,” said an elated George
Rawlings after the game, “there’s nothing to compare
with this.”
And while Cambiaso
made it clear that he would not be returning next season, but would
be staying in Argentina and playing in the Argentine Polo tour,
Crab Orchard team captain George Rawlings intimated that Crab Orchard
would not be playing high-goal polo next year, but limiting itself
to medium goal play.
Crab Orchard’s
Jeff Blake was named MVP and received the coveted Seymour H. Knox
Award for his tenacious defensive efforts and unselfish sacrifices
on behalf of the team. The Best Playing Pony of the match was Adolfo
Cambiaso’s 12-year-old brown Argentine mare, Sylvia. Nacho
Astrada’s Pico Blanco, a 13-year-old black Argentine mare
received the Willis L. Hartman Trophy for being named the Best Playing
Pony of the US Open tournament.
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