The last day of week 1 gave us two spectacular games between four very evenly pitched sides. The first game on ground 3 at Casa de Campo was between La Carbuccia and Test Drive. La Carbuccia, fresh from an easy dismissal of Pitirri on Friday were caught off guard guard by Test Drive who traded goals with them for the entire 1st half. The handicap goal gave them the slight edge in that parity but after half time things changed. Until then the scoreline had been exclusively dominated by Nacho Novillo- Astrada and Bete Donovan, but in the 4th chukka Novillo scored twice and from then on it was Advantage Test Drive. Although Donovan continued to pound in goals James snatched one in the 5th and then another in the last and augmented Test Drive’s lead to 11. All in all, Donovan’s total of 8 goals failed to topple the tournament’s 3rd favorites, Test Drive.
MVP Nacho Novillo Astrada.
On ground 2 a chastened Pitirri had more luck against Casa de Campo, despite losing their main asset Zubiaurre, who returned to Argentina for a tournament. Maiquez hit form and was able to hold Casa de Campo at bay, again throughout the first half. Santana was back and managed to steal two goals in the second chukka and Perzdiez and Rueda were not absent from the board. Rueda had 3, Perezdiez 1. However in chukkas 4 and 5 Pitirri were silent, despite some mesmeric runs from Maiquez, while Pieres continued with a steady stream of goals, adding to his collection of 7 in the game. Benjamin Araya delighted all by making an appearance for CdC and also contributed to the finally overbearing score of 9 to Pitirri’s 8.
Tomas Pieres took MVP
Prize-Giving was in charge of Revista Hola! República Dominicana.
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