In Friday’s second round-robin of the 2016 Polo Gear Challenge Cup, Audi (Timmy Dutta, Marc Ganzi, Jason Crowder and Brandon Phillips) opened the competition with a 5-4 win over Sonny Hill (Curtis Pilot, Francisco Bilbao, Francisco Lanusse and Gonzalo De la Fuente) before sitting down for the next three chukkers to watch Sonny Hill beat Casablanca (Gene Goldstein, Grant Ganzi, Julio Arellano and Juancito Bollini), 5-2½.
Audi was to face Casablanca in the final three chukkers of the round-robin when thunder, lightning and rain put a damper on the matchup.
On Saturday morning at 11am the two teams met to decide who would win the right to face Melody Capital (Cesar Gueikian, Lucas Lalor, Kris Kampsen and JJ Celis) in Sunday’s final. Melody Capital won Friday morning’s round-robin with wins over Flexjet (Melissa Ganzi, Juan Bollini, Tom de Bruin and Alejandro Poma), and The Dutta Corp (Tim Dutta, Piki Diaz Alberdi, Martin Estrada and Jared Zenni).
The 12-goal Audi team received one-half goal by handicap from Casablanca, but it was Gene Goldstein with the first goal of the mini-match for a 1-½ lead. Brandon Phillips fired back with a goal for Audi to end the first chukker on top, 1½-1.
Julio Arellano scored consecutive goals for Casablanca om second period action and Audi found themselves trailing, 3-1½. Marc Ganzi pushed through the final goal of the chukker but Casablanca maintained the lead, 3-2½.
Timmy Dutta gave Audi the lead, 3½-3, with his first goal of the game in the final chukker. Juancito Bollini responded with a goal for Casablanca to take the lead back, 4-3½. Phillips scored the final goal of the game with less than two minutes on the clock to give the game to Audi, 4½-4.
Sunday’s tournament schedule will feature a 10am subsidiary match between Flexjet and Casablanca followed immediately by a battle between Sonny Hill and Dutta Corp. The final of the 2016 Polo Gear Challenge Cup will field Melody Capital and Audi followed by a 4:30 Exhibition match.
http://polonews.com/2016/05/audi-beats-casablanca-goes-to-polo-gear-challenge-cup-final/