Tiburon, making its season debut, will play Casablanca in the final of the ChukkerTV Challenge Cup Sunday at Aspen Valley Polo Club.
In the afternoon game, Tiburon (Lauren Sherry, Collen Clark, Lucas Lalor, Pablo Dorignac) knocked off Tonkawa (Jeff Hildebrand, Brian Boyd, Nacho Novillo-Astrada, Jimmy Seward) for a thrilling 7-5 victory at High Mesa Field.
The game was tied three times before Clark converted a penalty-three for a 6-5 lead and Dorignac added an insurance goal after a great pass from Lalor with 1:10 left in the game.
Clark and Dorignac each had three goals and Sherry added one. Clark scored all his goals in the second half.
Argentine pro Nacho Novillo-Astrada was making his season-debut.
Casablanca (Santos Bollini, Grant Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Mariano Gracida) won the morning round-robin with a 5-2 win over Flexjet (Melissa Ganzi, Alex Gooding, Carlitos Gracida, Juan Bollini) and 1-0 squeaker over Los Amigos (Paul Foster, Gabriel Gracida/Jonathan Gracida, Mike Azzaro, Stewart Armstrong) at Sopris Field.
Casablanca broke open a close game with Flexjet in the third chukker behind Juancito Bollini’s two goals. In a defensive battle, Casablanca held on for a 1-0 victory on Santos Bollini’s goal early in the opening chukker.
In the other round-robin game, Los Amigos defeated Flexjet, 7-3. In the opening three chukkers, Los Amigos jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never let Flexjet in the game.
Juancito Bollini led with three goals while younger brother Santos Bollini had two goals including a game-winner. Melissa Ganzi and Paul Foster each had three goals.
On Sunday, the subsidiary game is 11 a.m. MST followed by the final at 1 p.m. Both games will be live streamed on ChukkerTV. Admission is free at Aspen Valley Polo Club. The public is welcome.—Sharon Robb