Aiken, SC – Upatoi Green’s victory in the coveted USPA Northrop Knox Cup tournament presented by The Aiken Standard and hosted by 302 Polo presented by Mercedes-Benz of Augusta was a match that ended as it started-a green machine kind of day! Upatoi Green’s strong roster of John Flournoy (1), Ruben Coscia (5), Martin Estrada (5) and Eddy Martinez (5) defeated the always tough Brigadoon brigade to make their way to the finals battleground.
On the other side of the ball was Crestview composed of John Eicher (3), Francisco Bilbao (6), Owen Rinehart (7) and Alan Meeker (A) who squeaked by a powerful Morgan Creek squad to fight against the green machine for the Knox Cup title. The finals of the USPA Northrup Knox Cup took place on a glorious Sunday, November 9 at New Bridge field #1 with Upatoi Green emerging victorious over Crestview 14-11 in a contest that began as a rout and ended up in an exciting fight to the finish for the title.
For the first half of the game it was ALL Upatoi Green with seven unanswered goals in the first two chukkers of play. The scoring opened with two consecutive penalty conversions by papa Eddy Martinez along with a goal from the field for a hat trick by Martinez to end the first chukker 3-0. In the second Ruben Coscia showed his prowress with the mallet by adding two more, then team patron, eagle eye John Flournoy added two impressive strikes from the field to end the second with Upatoi Green dominating 7-0. In the third Martin Estrada opened up the scoring to extend Upatoi Green’s lead by one more. Then finally Frankie Bilbao, the man with the magic mallet, finally tallied for Crestview. Estrada rapidly answered back once again to seemingly erase the momentum for Crestview. But experience and a cool head prevailed as Owen Rinehart slammed one through the uprights to end the chukker with some momentum for Crestview despite the green machine’s commanding lead of 9-2 at the close of the half.
The second hat trick of the game by Crestview’s #1 John Eicher along with a penalty conversion by Bilbao, answered back by goals from Upatoi Green’s Coscia and Estrada ended the fourth at 11-6 in favor of Upatoi. Again in the fifth Crestview added four to their tally as Eicher found the mark once along with the game’s third hat trick aced by Bilbao answered by Upatoi scoring only twice on efforts by Coscia and Estrada, the momentum then appeared to be perhaps shifting towards a Crestview comeback. But alas, in the sixth each team only found the uprights once with Bilbao for Crestview and Martinez for Upatoi each adding to their respective team’s tally for Upatoi Green to claim the title of USPA Northrup Knox Cup champions for 2008.
Linda Knox daughter of Northrup Knox in whose memory this tournament is played, along with Art Zappa of the Aiken Standard corporate sponsor of the event presented the highly coveted USPA Northrup Knox Cup to the deserving Upatoi Green team. The green machine’s dominance extended to the MVP and Best Playing Pony ranks as well with John Flournoy crowned amateur MVP along with his second chukker mount “Chequera” named as amateur best playing pony. Ruben Coscia of Upatoi Green garnered the professional MVP honors as well. Crestview’s Frankie Bilbao’s fourth chukker mount took home the professional best playing pony award.
302 Polo (www.302polo.com), The Aiken Standard, Mercedes-Benz of Augusta, All Star Rents, Ag South Farm Credit and all of the participating corporate sponsors were delighted to host this historically significant and prestigious tournament honoring one of the greats of polo in Aiken.