Finals set for Empire Polo Club’s Coyote Classic

Trinityto face California Polo/Matrix in Coyote Cup Finals

By AlexWebbe

Tim Rudy scored three of his game high five goals in thefirst half as Trinity (Rick Paicius, Tim Rudy, Erik Wright and David Flowers) rodeaway with a 10-4 win over Kingscliffe (Kate Ewart, Santos Areolla, Brad Ramsbyand Kendra Clark) in the opening match of the Coyote Classic Saturday afternoonat the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA.

Kingscliff received two goals by handicap but was unableto break through the Trinity defense in the opening two chukkers of play.

Consecutive goals from Rudy tied it up at 2-2 in thefirst.  Rudy added a third goal in thesecond chukker, and teammate Rick Paicius added two more to the Trinity totalfor a 5-2 halftime lead.

Third chukkers from Kate Ewart and Santos Areolla cut theTrinity lead to one goal, 5-4, but David Flowers closed out the scoring withhis first goal of the day for a two goal, 6-4 advantage.

Kingscliff continued to fire blanks in the final chukkeras the Trinity game plan continued to roll. Flowers scored Trinity’s opening goal of the fourth chukker followed bya pair of goals from the field from Rudy. Erik Wright scored the final goal of the contest as Trinity celebrated a10-4 pummeling of the Kingscliff team.

Rudy led all scoring with five goals.  Paicius and Flowers scored two goals apieceand Wright accounted for a goal in the win.

Ewart and Areolla scored single goals and Kingscliffreceived two goals by handicap.

CALIFORNIAPOLO/MATRIX WINS ROUND-ROBIN, IN FINALS

In late afternoon Coyote Cup action California Polo Club/Matrix(Ashton Wolf, Doug Snyder, Domingo Questel and Grainger Hines) scored wins overParklane (Jared Sheldon, Bill Garlock, Cameron Smith and Billy Ramos) andthe Toreodors (Lolo Payan, Roxy Keyfauver, Goyo Mariscal and Pepe Alcaraz) inround-robin competition to earn a berth in Sunday’s noon finals.  Kingscliffe, Parklane and the Toreodors willcompete in a consolation round-robin at 2PM.

Round-robin action began with Parklane and the Toreodorsbattling to a 2-2 tie in the first two chukkers of play, with neither teambeing able to control the pace of the game.

Parklane received one goal by handicap, but neither teamwas able to score from the field in the open chukker of play.

Goyo Mariscal managed to get something going in thesecond period, scoring two consecutive goals for a 2-1 Toreodors edge.  Parklane’s Bill Garlock managed to knot it upwith the final goal of the mini-match for a 2-2 draw.

Parklane held the field for the second two chukkers,facing a strong California Polo/Matrix team. 

Parklane received one goal by handicap but quickly addedto it on a penalty conversion from Wolf. Sheldon responded for Parklane with a couple of goals, but a pair ofgoals from the veteran Questel and a single goal from Snyder ended the chukkerwith California Polo/Matrix on top of a 4-3 lead.

Sheldon tied it with the first goal of their secondchukker, but Wolf put California Polo/Matrix back on top with another penaltygoal.   Smith scored his first goal ofthe day to make it all even at 5-5, with Questel coming through with the finaland goal for the 6-5 win.

“They (Parklane) are a good team,” said Questel.  “We needed to get everyone working togetherto take the game from them today.”

For the final two chukkers of the three-team battle, CaliforniaPolo/Matrix took an early 3-1 lead on a pair of goals from the field fromQuestel and a single goal from Snyder. Lolo Payan accounted for the sole goal from the Toreodors in the openingperiod.

“we knew right away that we had our work cut out for us,”said Hines,  “but with an experiencedplayer like Domingo (Questel) in command, the team coordinated offense anddefense as if we’d been playing together for weeks.”

Scoring was hard to come by in the final chukker with Mariscalscoring the only goal.  The Toreodorscontinued to press the attack but a resolute California Polo/Matrix defenseheld on for the 3-2 win and an appointment with Trinity in Sunday’s noonfinals.

“It’s great to see this kind of enthusiasm in some of theearly tournaments,” said Empire’s polo manager, Vicky Owens.  “”It’s just this kind of participation thattunes up players and horses for the regular season,” she added.