A make-shift Valiente II team wins big;
Lechuza Caracas manhandles Audi

By Alex Webbe

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.

VALIENTE II 12, COCA-COLA 5

All bets were off on the results of the Valiente II vs. Coca-Cola game when word was
received that their 10-goal star, Adolfo Cambiaso would be sidelined for the match with
an injured mallet hand (right).

In a creative move to field a competitive team while Cambiaso was on the mend, Bob
Jornayvaz (captain of the Valiente I team and patron of both Valiente I and Valiente
II) organized a team that had his 19-year-old son watching form the sidelines as Alejo
Taranco and Pelon Stirling were joined by Santi Torres and Santi Bottaro on the field.

“We tried to get a variance approved that would allow us to substitute another player for
him that might already be on another team’s roster, but it was turned down,” offered the
senior Jornayvaz.

Valiente II took the better part of the first chukker with the players getting acclimated to
playing together. Pelon Stirling scored the only goal of the period on penalty conversion

for an early 1-0 lead.

Valiente II put three more goals on the scoreboard in the second, with Stirling scoring
twice from the field and once on a 60-yard penalty shot. Coca-Cola picked up a goal
on a backhander from Luis Escobar but trailed at the end of the second period, 4-1.

Three more Valiente II goals went unanswered in the third chukker with Santi Torres
scoring one goal from the field and Stirling converting a pair of 60-yard penalty shots for
goals. At the end of the first half of play, Valiente II led by six goals, 7-1.

The two teams exchanged goals in the fourth period with Torres adding another goal
from the field while Coca-Cola 9-goaler, Julio Arellano, converted a 60-yard penalty
shot. The Valiente II lead held at six goals, 8-2.

Goals from Stirling and Torres extended the Valiente II lead to eight goals, 10-2, just
three minutes into the fifth chukker. Coca-Cola responded with three consecutive
penalty conversions from Arellano, cutting the Valiente II lead to five goals, 10-5.

Coca-Cola was blanked for the third time on the day as Stirling scored on a penalty shot
at the beginning of the last chukker, and Torres scored a goal from the field in the final
seconds of play. A make-shift team had destroyed Coca-Cola 12-5 while their revered
10-goaler, Adolfo Cambiaso looked on from the team’s tent at the end of the field.

Stirling set the pace for Valiente II with eight goals on the day (five on penalties). Torres
scored the remaining four goals for the win.

Arellano scored four penalty goals and Escobar added a goal from the field in the loss.