n front of a packed house, Palm Beach Equine (Brandon Phillips, 4, Juan Bollini, 5, Alejandro Novillo Astrada, 8, Scott Swerdlin, 0) won a hardfought 10-9 game against Audi (Lucas Lalor, 5, Sugar Erskine, 6, Marc Ganzi, 2, Jared Zenni, 6).
Argentine 8-goaler Alejandro Novillo Astrada scored the winning goal with 1:45 left in the game. Astrada finished with four goals and was named Most Valuable Player.
“I went to put pressure on Lucas and Marc and I got an open space and luckily I was able to score,” Astrada said. “Marc was trying to hook me and it was a little difficult but it went in.
“This is a very fun team to play with,’ Astrada said. “I think we got along very well from the beginning. In our first game, once we started working as a team and did what we had to do for each other we played very well together.”
When asked what the key to winning was, Swerdlin smiled and said “We put one more in than they did. You can’t take anything for granted but that was a great goal by Astrada. There was no secret, everybody was marked up and fighting, every ball was hard.”
Ava Maria, a 5-year-old mare played by Ganzi and owned by Spinacci, was Grand Champions Best Playing Pony.
Palm Beach Equine was making its second championship appearance this season. In the Spring Challenge Cup, Palm Beach Equine lost a 9-8 overtime game to Aspen Valley’s Pablo Pulido, Juancito Bollini, Grant Ganzi and Alejandro Novillo Astrada.
“This team played amazing, it was great fun,” Swerdlin said. “I want to thank Marc and Melissa Ganzi because without them I wouldn’t have the opportunity to play this kind of polo. It’s very generous of them to let us play with these kind of players that they have. It’s great, it’s exciting and it’s fun.”
Swerdlin, coming off three back procedures in April, was determined to compete during the spring season despite his doctor’s suggestion to take it easy.
“I was getting better and took a chance,” Swerdlin said. “The doctors told me to give up polo 20 years ago. So you know what I did, I gave up doctors.”
The evenly-matched teams played entertaining, wide open polo for the crowd. Audi led 1-0 and 3-1 after two chukkers. Palm Beach Equine outscored Audi, 4-1, in the third chukker when Phillips got hot with three goals, and led 5-4 at the half.
In the second half, the teams played to a 2-2 tie in the fourth chukker with Palm Beach Equine still leading, 7-6. Palm Beach Equine had its biggest lead, 9-7, after the fifth chukker but Audi tied the game at 9-9 early in the final chukker with goals from Lalor and Erskine after a great pass from Zenni. After Astrada’s game-winner, Audi had two final scoring opportunities that fell short.
“It was fun,” Phillips said. “Juan and I have played together on-and-off for 15 years so it’s fun to play with him. This is the first time I got to play with Negro which was great, he is a very good player. He is very easy to play with.
“We all play pretty classic, there was no secret to us,” Phillips said. “I know Juan is going to hit big so you find an open spot and he’s good at being a quarterback and finding me. It was actually cool, on our set plays Negro was making holes for me to go through and Juan was finding me. It all worked well and Scott played great taking the man. He’s gone against his doctor’s wishes for years, why stop now?”
Phillips led Palm Beach Equine with a team-high five goals and finished with 10 goals in two games. Astrada had four goals and Bollini added one.
For Audi, Ganzi had a team-high five goals including four penalty conversions. Lalor and Erskine each had two goals.
In the Just For The Love Of It subsidiary final, tournament defending champion Dutta Corp (Kris Kampsen, 6, Carlitos Gracida, 4, Timmy Dutta, 2, Tommy Collingwood, 5) bounced back from Friday’s loss to Palm Beach Equine, with an impressive 12-7 victory over Sebucan (Pablo Pulido, 2, Bauti Andrada, 1, Pablo Spinacci, 6, Nic Roldan, 8).
Sebucan led early in the game, 3-2 in the first and 4-3 after the second but a big 3-0 third chukker gave Dutta Corp a 6-4 halftime lead and they never trailed after that playing well as an unselfish, four-man team.
Dutta led scoring with a game-high five goals. Collingwood and Kampsen each had three goals and Gracida added one.
Roldan led Sebucan with three goals. Pulido had two goals and Andrada and Spinacci each had one goal.
Last year’s Santa Rita Abierto was won by Dutta Corp for the third time (Timmy Dutta, Lucas Diaz Alberdi, Piki Diaz Alberdi, Alex Webb) with a 7-4 victory over Sebucan (Josh Dubarry, Pablo Pulido, Alejandro Novillo Astrada, Julio Gracida) in a four-chukker lightning-abreviated championship final.
The Santa Rita Abierto is named after Melissa Ganzi’s grandmother, who passed away on December 29, 2012, in Wellington.