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Greenwich Polo Club Airstream gave White Birch in the final of the Greenwich Cup. At one point in the fifth chukker, with a penalty conversion by Memo Gracida, they had tied the match 8-8. In the end Airstream met the same fate as every other team White Birch has faced this year in a final, they ended up losing. White Birch won the match, 13-9. With the victory, White Birch thus has the distinction of having being crowned champion of every tournament it entered in 2005. In the first chukker, it looked like White Birch would cruise to victory, as match MVP Peter Brant, and Mariano Aguerre scored, while Airstream was kept off the board. Brant made a nice angle shot, while Aguerre hit a high fly, that landed and rolled over the line. Then, as the second chukker opened Gracida squeezed past a couple of defenders to score. White Birch then made two unassisted goals, by Lucas Criado, and Memo's son Julio. The latter was in a two on one situation, and drew a great assist from Aguerre. Not to be out done by his relatives, Carlos Gracida, scored, and the teams went into the third chukker, with White Birch up, 4-2. Again in the third, White Birch had the better of the play on both ends. Criado made two penalty shots, his second a strong shot into the breeze. Ruben Coscia got Airstream's lone goal, and at the half, White Birch was ahead, 6-3. The fourth chukker belonged to Airstream, the Gracida brothers in particular, as Carlos scored twice from the field, and Memo made one from the field. In their lowest scoring chukker of the day, Brant had White Birch's only goal, coming off a neck shot. Thus Airstream was within striking distance, down 7-6, at chukker's end. First on the board in the fifth chukker was Criado, with one of his game high seven goals, this one from the field, in a crowd. Carlos Gracida scored from the field, and was followed by Memo Gracida's penalty conversion. White Birch struck back with penalty conversions by Aguerre and Criado, and took a 10-8 lead, and were headed to another trophy win. They put the icing on the cake with three goals in the sixth chukker, one by Brant and two by Criado, one of which was from the field. With a fraction of a second left, Carlos Gracida scored from the field. Petaca, a 10 year old thoroughbred mare, played by him in the first and fifth chukkers, was named Best Playing Pony. Greenwich Polo Club Utilizing it's speeed and team work White Birch bested Airtsream 18-9 today. It was an all around strong effort from the players and their ponies, as everyone contributd to the victory. Throughout the match the team just kept building on it's lead. They jumped ahead 4-1 in the first chukker,a nd by half time were up 10-5. These two old rivals will meet again on Sunday for the championship at 3 PM. |
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