ANTHONY Filamor and his student, 15-year-old Marty Romualdez, struck hard in the second half.
And their efforts paid off as they led the Greens to a 5-2 stopping of the Blues on Sunday at the Enrique Zobel East Field of the Manila Polo Club in Makati City.
The win allowed the Greens to clinch the crown in the high-goal game of the first ever Chairman’s Polo Cup tournament, held in honor of the club’s Polo Chairman Filamor.
The 34-year-old Filamor, who has been guiding the young Romualdez since last year, rose to the occasion in the third chukker.
With the count tied at 1-all at halftime, Filamor struck with two goals during a seven-minute period of the third chukker.
His followup of a defensive play broke the tie, giving Greens the lead, 2-1.
Then, he gave Greens some distance when Filamor hit a penalty shot in the last four minutes.
“We started out cold. The field was bouncy. We did not catch the breaks in the first two chukkers,” said Filamor, who is also the organizing committee chairman.
In the fourth and last chukker, the young Romualdez took over scoring.
Riding a borrowed horse named Samoa, he scored on two penalty shots in the last two minutes and his efforts allowed the Greens to gain a comfortable lead towards the end.
Romualdez said good conditioning helped him carry the team win the game.
“It was good (conditioning). I was practicing every other day since last week,” said Romualdez.
The Blues took the early lead at 1-0 when Ricardo Garcia struck from 40 meters in the second chukker.
After that, Romualdez said he got lucky when he tied the match at 1-all. That was when teammate Alfy Araneta missed an attempt, recovered the ball and sent it in on the closing seconds of the half.
The Chairman’s Cup is part of the many major tournaments held at the Polo Club, with the season beginning with the Enrique Zobel Cup in January, followed by the Fila Cup and Okada Manila Cup last February. The season-ending President’s Cup takes place on March 26.
The High Goal championship trophy is considered the expert division in this event, held in partnership with the Manila Standard and supported by Martin Romualdez.
Earlier, Team Blue won the low-goal finals after beating Team White, 3-1.
Goals in the first and second chukkers from Angelo Licaros, allowed Blue to dominate the first half, 2-0.
