The Lucchese Polo team boosted its record in the 2015 Barry Memorial Cup to 2-0 with a win over Audi on Wednesday, January 14.

Though Audi began with an early lead, Lucchese outscored the team — nearly half of those goals coming in the form of penalty shots. Pieres scored five of his game-high eleven goals on penalty shots. Weisz scored the other two goals for Lucchese in the win. 

Horses in the South (HITS) described the match as “a game of eights from start to finish, as 8-goalers Nic Roldan (Audi), Nico Pieres and Magoo LaPrida (both Lucchese) dominated the action.

Though Audi tightened the gap in the 6th chukker with three goals, the match ended 13-12 for Lucchese with a goal by Pieres.

Lucchese team members spoke to HITS post-match, complimenting their opponents: “I think they’re a really good team,” said LaPrida. “We knew it was going to be really hard, so we just tried to be really on them in defense and try to play as a team. I think we did really good.”

Pieres concurred. “Audi likes to run, and they are really good with the ball, so we had to mark them quite good and not give the ball away,” he said. In his estimation, it all came down to teamwork. “It was really good between the four of us – all four really good players.”

Read a full breakdown of the match on Pololine.com. Play continues in the Joe Barry Memorial Cup on Saturday, January 17th with Lucchese facing Tonkawa (1-1) at 10am.