The 86th. Tortugas Open resumed on Monday October 19, with two League A matches, that were held at the Argentine Association of Polo Headquarters, in Pilar. In the first match, a terrific La Natividad La Dolfina swept Don Ercole and in the follow-up, La Zeta Kazak claimed their first victory over La Ensenada.
La Natividad La Dolfina and Don Ercole opened fire. The latter had Keko Magrini and Facundo Cruz Llosa back on the saddle, who were previously replaced in their debut match, by Lucas Criado Jr. and Peke González, respectively, due to injuries.
With regards to the match, there’s no much to say. The 40-goal foursome literally overwhelmed their opponents from the very start, reaching a commanding 7-0 lead in the second chukka. Don Ercole were able to produce a goal in the third chukka, when Facundo Cruz Llosa found the flags, but it was clear enough that the contest belonged to the Cañuelas-based foursome, led by a lethal Jeta Csatagnola, who produced eleven goals. By half time, La Natividad La Dolfina had an impressive ten goal advantage, 14-4. The second part was exactly the same, with Don Ercole scoring from time to time, just to stay in the game. For La Natividad La Dolfina it was a walk in the park, and the match could have been finished by the sixth chukka, when the Cañuelas boys were 23-4 up. Impossible to overcome for Don Ercole, indeed. Finally, La Natividad La Dolfina’s comfortable stroll ended in the last chukka, when Jeta Castagnola converted a 60-yards penalty to secure a terrific 27-7 win. Yes, the gap was no less than 20 goals!
The follow-up saw La Zeta Kazak and La Ensenada The former played a fantastic debut match against La Natividad La Dolfina, and the latter were in search for their second win, after defeating Don Ercole in their previous contest.
La Zeta Kazak opened the scores, through a great field goal by Lorenzo Chavanne and Nico Pieres, who received a pass from Lorenzo within the 30 additional seconds, to close the first chukka 2-0 up. A very determined La Zeta Kazak seized the reins in the two following chukkas, and halfway the third they had a commanding 5-1 lead. In the meantime, it was Juan Britos who scored for La Ensenada. Although the fourth ended tied at 1-all, La Zeta Kazak demonstrated to be solid enough both in attack and defense, displaying an outstanding team play, that allowed them to reach a 6-3 advantage by half time. Just a handful of goals, indeed, in a very intense first half, that saw La Zeta Kazak on top form.
Back to the field after half time, and although La Zeta Kazak remained in the lead, La Ensenada presented battle and managed to close the gap; but the same pattern seemed to be repeated – La Ensenada scored, La Zeta Kazak replied quickly, led by a remarkable Lorenzo Chavanne, whose star is growing bigger with every match, La Zeta Kazak’s widened their advantage to four goals (10-6). An advantage that was maintained in the sixth, despite it ended tied at 1-all. With two chukkas left, La Ensenada needed to act quickly in order to retain their hopes.
La Zeta Kazak started to build the victory in the seventh chukka, after a 40-yards penalty conversion by Lorenzo Chavanne and a remarkable neckshot goal by Sapo Caset; the Argentinian-French foursome extended their lead to six goals now, 13-7. Just a few minutes into the last chukka, Jero del Carril converted a 60 yards penalty, but it was quickly replied by another field goal by Lorenzo Chavanne. With four minutes remaining in regulation time, and with La Zeta Kazak leading by five goals once again, La Ensenada were not about to give up that easily – Jero del Carril and Diego Cavnagh added two more goals. However, the clock was running fast and there was no more time; at the end of the day, La Zeta Kazak, who already played an outstanding match against La Natividad La Dolfina, demonstrated to be up to the task, and claimed a very well deserved 14-11 victory over a very talented La Ensenada foursome.
THE 86th. TORTUGAS OPEN WILL BE BACK AT THE TORTUGAS COUNTRY CLUB, ON WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 21, WITH THE FOLLOWING ORDER OF PLAY:
1pm: La Hache vs. La Aguada
4pm: Hiper vs. La Irenita
THE FINAL OF THE 86th. TORTUGAS OPEN IS SET TO BE PLAYED ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7.
86th. TORTUGAS OPEN – Teams & Fixture
Cover photo by Agustina Fonda.
