A Game to Remember

The 113-year-old Netjets Pacific Coast Open is considered the biggest polo event on the Left Coast, but this year’s final at the Santa Barbara Polo Club was an absolute cracker with the L.I.N.Y. team, consisting mainly of teenagers, beating the more established Farmers & Merchants Bank, led by two-time PCO winner Dan Walker, 12-11 in the fading minutes of the sizzling two-hour match.

The L.I.N.Y. team, consisting of nine goaler Poroto Cambiaso, the 16-year-old son of Argentinian Adolfo Cambiaso, considered the world’s best player, Paquito de Narvaez, 15, Kristos ‘Keko’ Magrini, 16, and Santino Magrini, 21, shot into the lead 3-1 in the first chukker, leading at half time 7-5.

The score in the penultimate chukker was 11-8 with the young guns looking to ace the game, but 68-year-old Dan’s team of Lucas Criado, 48, Facundo Obregon, 32, and Peke Gonzalez, 24, fought back with a last-minute drive almost equaling the score before the final horn.

But Cambiaso roared back, scoring a total of seven goals enabling L.I.N.Y. – the youngest champions in history – to hoist the iconic 8-foot-high silver and gold trophy, as well as being named Most Valuable Player with Ojos, the best pony.

“It was an historical game on all levels,” says Dan. “FMB was required to play perfect polo while Team L.I.N.Y. was required to play normal polo. We have no regrets, just disappointment we did not have more perfect moments. Our goal was to finish the game with ‘No complaints’ and ‘No excuses.’ We accomplished that goal.

“But it was certainly a game to remember!”

Normally tradition holds that the winners pay for drinks, but club manager, David Sigman, tells me that because of the team’s young ages it was skipped this year.