Sep 02, 2024
Reaching the apex of the high-goal season at Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club in Carpinteria, California, Antelope (Grant Palmer, Leon Schwencke, Felipe “Pipe” Vercellino, Lucas Escobar*) and Carbenella Polo (Ben Soleimani, Kristos “Keko” Magrini*, Iñaki Laprida, Miguel “Miki” Novillo Astrada Jr.) faced-off in the NetJets Pacific Coast Open (PCO) on Sunday, September 1. Harnessing the energy of a full capacity crowd, Antelope leaped to take full control. Under the leadership of captain and top scorer Vercellino, the team in maroon dominated the second period with five unanswered goals. The decisive chukker, that established a commanding lead, propelled Antelope to the trophy stage for their first PCO title in two decades.
“[I'm] so happy because I’ve been working with Antelope for many years, since Grant was 12 or 13 years old. I’ve been with the organization and Santi Trotz for a long time. Here in California, it’s the biggest tournament, so we always dreamed we’d win it one time. I can’t describe this feeling.” – Antelope's Felipe "Pipe" Vercellino
Both teams earned their place in the prestigious finale following riveting semifinal overtime victories. Facing each other in preliminary play of both the Whittier Trust Silver Cup and PCO, the two battle-tested opponents each earned one-goal victories to split their season matchups, with one last Sunday showdown officially set to crown a PCO champion.
Collecting 16-goal trophies throughout the high-goal season, Antelope topped the podium in both the USPA-sanctioned Robert Skene Trophy and America Cup. Capitalizing on the momentum and cohesion established throughout the summer, Antelope struck first on back-to-back goals from Schwencke and Vercellino for an early 2-1 advantage. Making a statement in the second chukker, a breakaway from Palmer ignited an impressive five-goal unanswered Antelope run. Temporarily halting Antelope’s pace in the third, Laprida and Magrini each found the posts for Carbenella Polo’s first scoring success since the opening chukker. Despite Carbenella Polo regaining their footing at the end of the first half, Antelope’s balanced offensive efforts saw each player add their name to the scoreboard, including four goals from Vercellino for an impressive 7-1 lead at the break.
Reflecting on the strengths of Antelope’s play in the PCO leading up to the final, Palmer shared, “We have a good system. We’re not changing our strategy too much game to game, so we’re really working on playing to our strengths.” Sharing the importance of prior season victories, Grant continued, “It did a lot for our confidence because we went undefeated that tournament [Robert Skene Trophy] and it gave us a lot of hope that we would have a good season. It’s a good way to start because you go the rest of the tournaments knowing you have a good team, and you can compete for the big trophies.” Prior to the final, Palmer recognized the significance of a win for an important member of the Antelope organization, “It’s also our head groom’s [Arturo Bentancourt] last year who has been working with us for 30 years, I know it would be really special to win.”
Back on the attack to open the second half, Palmer increased Antelope’s edge, with Magrini responding from the penalty line. Matching their opponents once again, Laprida opened a three-goal chukker for Carbenella Polo. Antelope brought their own firepower, including Palmer’s third goal of the match to bring ardent supporters to their feet as Antelope maintained an 11-7 lead moving into the final period. Holding Carbenella Polo to just one field goal in the sixth, two drives from Escobar in the final minutes of play ultimately sealed Antelope’s triumph 14-8.
Earning his first PCO title with Antelope, an emotional Vercellino expressed, “[I’m] so happy because I’ve been working with Antelope for many years, since Grant was 12 or 13 years old. I’ve been with the organization and Santi Trotz for a long time. Here in California, it’s the biggest tournament, so we always dreamed we’d win it one time.”
The NetJets Pacific Coast Open is now available On-Demand.
*Lucas Escobar and Kristos “Keko” Magrini are Active Members of Team USPA. Team USPA is a USPA program designed to enhance and grow the sport of polo in the United States by identifying young, talented American players and providing mentored training and playing opportunities leading to a pool of higher rated amateur and pro players and the resultant giveback to the sport of polo.
All photos courtesy of ©David Lominska.
Effective Date: Saturday, May 16, 2020
The suspension of USPA Tournaments and Events will be lifted for USPA Member Clubs in locales where hosting polo matches and tournaments is permitted under applicable state and local laws, executive orders and similar decrees. The USPA Member Clubs in these locales are encouraged to follow all such requirements of their state and local authorities with respect to polo operations. In addition, we also encourage all USPA Member Clubs to take the precautions recommended by the CDC. We are preparing a detailed list of best practices for USPA Member Clubs as they return to hosting USPA Tournaments and Events and plan to circulate these guidelines within the next week. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and will notify you if we determine a different course of action is necessary.
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