Lisle Nixon Final and Consolation 2012
This past weekend at Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club the polo season started off with a bang. Under beautiful sunny skies the 12 goal teams battled it out in the Lisle Nixon Final and Consolation.
The Finals of the Lisle Nixon Memorial featured Antelope vs. Cotterel. Both of these teams won their semi final games by large margins and were geared up and ready to open the first Finals of the year in style. Antelope shot out to an early three goal lead thanks to some quick goals off the mallet of Jessie Bray but Cotterel was able to counter with a three goal run of their own to tie up the game. The momentum that Cotterel got from their comeback they used to take a three goal lead of their own which was aided by great penalty shooting from Ruben Coscia. In the second half Antelope was resilient and kept making runs that looked like they would be enough to regain the lead but time and time again Cotterel was able to slam the door on their come back. In the last chukker Antelope got the chance to tie the game up after lots of continuous fighting but the penalty four that they had was stopped by Jenny Luttrell right in the mouth of the goal. After this final stop Cotterel was able to finish Antelope off by putting one more goal in for a final score of 16 to 14.
Overall the game was very fast and exciting featuring great team work and horse power. The MVP was Cotterel’s Ruben Coscia and his horse Miss World was named best playing pony.
The round Robin Consolation final featured Palm Desert/Long Beach vs. Farmers and Merchants Bank vs. Mansour/Hanalei bay. Even though this game was just for the consolation trophy all the teams came out to play and made for some very fast and open action for our crowd of over 400. The speed and openness of the game was helped by the near perfect conditions of the Grandstand field that looked more like a giant striped carpet than a grass field. If you missed the action this weekend be sure to make it out next week as we start the second 12 goal tournament of the season the Pope Challenge!