Cotterel Takes Long Route to March 12 Goal Victory

It really doesn't matter how you get to the final game of any tournament - it's what you do when you get there. For Jenny Luttrell-Benardoni and her Cotterel Farms aggregation (Jenny Luttrell-Benardoni, Francisco Benardoni 1, Ruben Coscia 5, Juan Curbelo 5) the route to the final was not ideal. A pair of losses to start with and it didn't look promising. But a third game victory combined with some help, allowed the Idaho group into a shootout to determine an opponent for undefeated Highwood (Ron Mathison, Marcello Rodrigues-Abbiati 4, Geronimo Obregon 4, Mariano Gutierrez 4) - a shootout that they won.The final then, was a rematch between the tournament's first game combatants but the result would be much different - this time Cotterel prevailed. In fact, the Idaho farmers would never trail as they literally outran the Canadian outfit by a final score of 6 - 5.With a handicap award of one to start with, first period counters by Curbelo and Coscia gave Cotterel a lead of three going to the second.Gutierrez and Rodriguez-Abbiati scored for Highwood in that second to trail by just one (3 - 2).Benardoni notched his first of the day in the third chukker to give Cotterel a lead of two but Highwood got back to within one as Gutierrez converted a penalty four strike to go to halftime (4 - 3).Curbelo scored his second - the only goal of the fourth frame - and Idaho now led by two with two to go in regulation (5 - 3).The penultimate stanza - like chukker number four - featured just one goal. That counter was an open goal conversion by Gutierrez from 30 yards and Mathison and Co., once again, trailed by only one going to the final frame (5 - 4).In the sixth, Gutierrez grabbed his second goal from the field and the count was now tied at five with less than three minutes to go. An alert play from the right of the Highwood goal rewarded Benardoni with his second goal of the contest that turned out to be the winner as Cotterel prevailed by one goal at 6 - 5 and had won the March 12 Goal Tournament - the prelude to the Skins Tournament.Benardoni, with creative and aggressive play, was selected as the Most Valuable Player to his team and Euro, owned by Mathison and played by Rodriguez-Abbiati, was rewarded with the Best Playing Pony blanket.Tony Gregg