Casablanca bests Audi 8-7
WELLINGTON — I n a wild fifinish, Casablanca won its Sterling Cup opener with a thrilling 8-7 overtime victory over Audi on Sunday in front of a packed house at Grand Champions Polo Club.
Te e n a ge r Gr a n t Ga n z i scored the winning goal at the 7:07 mark of the seventh chukker.
“I scored the goal and I was really happy, especially since I think I stopped Rodrigo’s goal that was going in,” said Ganzi, 18, a freshman at Lynn University. “Rodrigo hit it and I put my mallet up because I knew it was going to go in. But then my horse stopped it. When I saw i t kicked forward I knew I had to go for it.”
Cas a bl a nc a’s Harr i s on Azzaro, Ganzi, Gonzalito Pieres and Rodrigo Andrade d o mi n a t e d mo s t o f t h e game, forcing Audi (Marc Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Nic Roldan, Inaki Laprida) to play catch-up.
Casablanca had two-goal leads in the second (3- third (4-2), fourth (5-3) and fififth chukkers (7-5) until Audi, shook offff its mental errors and missed scoring opportunities, to tie the game at 7 with 3:44 left in regulation on Roldan’s lofted 60-goal penalty shot.
Casablanca got balanced s cori ng out of i ts at t ack . Ganzi led with three goals, Andrade and Azzaro had two goals, and Pieres added one goal.
“This was a really good win for our team; winning in overtime is never easy,” Ganzi said. “It was a hardfought game and it was fun. It was nice to beat them.”
Pieres and Andrade, both nine-goalers, are using the Sterling Cup as a tuneup for the 26-goal Gold Cup and U.S. Open tournaments.
It was good fun, maybe it would have been better to win before the overtime,” said Pieres, whose legendary father, Gonzalo, competed and won several Sterling Cups.
“It’s always good to win the fifirst game and get the confifidence going for the young players,” Pieres said. “It was quite good Grant ended up scoring the winning goal. He had two chances to win it before and he missed it. He had a third chance and he put it in.”
At 16, it was Harrison Azzaro’s 20-goal debut. Azzaro is the son of former 10-goaler Mike Azzaro, one of the top Americ a n pl aye r s of a l l - time. Azzaro and his family watched from the sidelines. After the game, his son rushed offff to play a low goal game at a nearby fifield.
“He played great, it was his fifirst 20-goal game,” said his father. “He looked awesome out there. It was fun to watch him. He is going to learn a lot playing with Gonzalito and Rodrigo. Most important thing is God kept him safe.”
The seven-team tournament continues today.