Day 7 Finishes for U.S. Masters Teams at 2023 WMH PACC

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – The U.S. Masters Teams finished another day full of competition and camaraderie at Day 7 of the 2023 World Masters Hockey Pan American Continental Cup (PACC) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Pool play concludes on Wednesday, December 13, with finals taking place on Thursday, December 14.

The U.S. O-50 Men’s Masters Team battled Chile for 70 minutes on Tuesday, but an Erik Enters (Harleysville, Pa.) goal in the 29th minute and a six-save performance from Pradeep Menon (Cumming, Ga.) were not enough to overcome their opponent. The red, white and blue fell 4-1 in their final game of pool play in the PACC. Enters, the vice-captain of the team, notched the team’s first goal of the competition as he buried a loose ball in the circle off the rebound of a corner to pull the USA to within one goal in the second quarter.

Chile was able to get on the board first as they converted a broken corner with Felipe Morales finding the inside of the post in the 3rd minute to take the lead. Sebastian Webb doubled the lead for the Red as he was able to put home a direct corner shot in the 24th minute, making the score 2-0.

 USA was able to answer back quickly as build-up from the back ended in a penalty corner opportunity. USA center back Barry Payne (Newton, Mass.) outletted to captain Chip Rogers (Oxford, Ohio.), who bumped the pass up to Rodrigo Alegria (Weston, Fla.). Alegria then fed Rogers who had gone for an overlapping run on the left. After drawing the defense, Rogers sent the ball over to Nigel Traverso in the middle of the pitch. Traverso sent the ball to an overlapping Paul Brown (Fredericksburg, Va.) just over the 23-meter line, and Brown took it into the circle and passed to Ranjit Singh. It was Singh who found the foot of a Chile defender, earning a penalty corner for the Golden Wolves. Enters inserted the corner to Mike Sandhu (Walnut, Calif.), who stopped it cleanly for Raj Goraya (Kent, Wash.) to take a direct shot. Goraya’s shot was slowed by the Chile goalkeeper Hugo Marquez, but Enters was able to collect the ball and send it to the boards for USA’s first goal – putting USA to within one at 2-1.

A quick answer by Chile two minutes later pushed the margin back to two, which the teams took into the halftime break. Chile added a fourth goal in the 46th minute when captain Gonzalo Andrade struck on a short corner, but USA was able to shut Chile out for the remainder of the game. USA used a number of runs to get into the 23 and the circle, but they were not able to convert any into goals and the final score remained 4-1 in favor of Chile.

“The team built a solid offense and created many chances and scored its first goal of the tournament,” said Payne. “We were unable to capitalize on multiple chances in the second half. Pradeep Menon made several key saves in the third quarter to keep us close. This was by far the best performance as a team in this tournament.”

USA concludes the 2023 PACC with a friendly game against the Argentina O-45 Men’s team on Thursday, December 14. Passback against Los Leones is 6:00 a.m. ET.

The U.S. O-50 Women’s Masters team took on Ceibo in their fifth match of the PACC. Ceibo came out strong at the whistle, catching USA on their heels slightly. Ceibo put pressure on immediately and were able to strike first with a goal in just the 2nd minute of play. The lead almost lasted the rest of the quarter, until at the 15-minute mark when USA utilized nice two-touch passing up the righthand side and into the circle to find their first goal. Flor Manero (Key Biscayne, Fla.) found Margaret Kelly (Madison, N.H.) deep in Ceibo’s defending half, and Kelly sent the ball to Kathy Frick (Doylestown, Pa.) who had overlapped to the stroke mark and finished in goal, tying the game at 1-1.

Ceibo was able to manipulate USA’s defense and scored two goals in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 3-1 lead. The second half looked promising for USA, who was able to earn a few penalty corners, but were unable to convert on any. Ceibo kept attacking and were able to capitalize on a free play goal to extend their lead to 4-1. The game ended 4-1 in favor of Ceibo, despite USA holding a 4-0 advantage in attacking penalty corners.

Playing in the O-55 age division, the U.S. O-60 Women’s Masters Team took on a fierce O-55 Argentina side for their match on Tuesday. Despite a strong effort, USA eventually fell 7-0 to the hosts.

It was all offense from the start for Argentina, who garnered a pair of penalty corners just two minutes into play. On the second, Argentina notched their first goal to take a 1-0 lead. In the 15th minute, the hosts doubled their lead to 2-0 going into the second quarter. Pushing hard again, Argentina went up 3-0 in their first minute of the second frame. A pair of goals at the end of the quarter gave Argentina a 5-0 lead heading into halftime.

After another two-goal quarter for Argentina in the third, USA pulled together the defense to shutout the Argentina attack in the fourth. The red, white and blue withstood pressure that included five penalty corners.

Click here to view USA's schedule. Games held on the Blue field will be live streamed on Argentina Hockey Masters Association's YouTube.

To view the 2023 WMH PACC Event Page, click here.