What can Brown do for you?

Jake Brown scores nine, leading Livin’ the Vision to their fifth straight “Polo Cup”

By Dave Conard Sports Editor, KennettTimes.com

Christmas Tree Farms' Kathy Fawser gets a goal in action on Sunday

NEW GARDEN — Polo may never be considered a “main stream” sport or ever get the publicity that thorough bread racing gets.

That being said, on the second weekend in June over the last six years in the Kennett Square / Unionville area, and more specifically the Brandywine Polo grounds, “the sport of kings” plays the role of top dog.

On a sun-drenched field on Sunday afternoon, the Brandywine Polo Club held it’s annual “Polo Cup” match between “Livin’ the Vision” and the team from Christmas Tree Farm with the proceeds benefiting “The women’s auxiliary “On the Cutting Edge” pledge to the Chester County Hospital.

Livin' the Vision's Jake Brown scored nine goals on Sunday

As the match got underway it was clear that Colorado State standout Jake Brown with a rating of three (nine goals overall), would be a “thorn in the side” of the red clad Christmas Tree Farm team as he scored the first goal of the match on a 60-yard penalty shot one minute into the game.

Brown scored his second of the tilt on an extreme angle shot following a sensational 45-yard pass which he lifted over two horses and players, lauded by an exuberant rant by public address announcer Bradley Hendrix, who did a great job informing attendees of the nuances of the game of polo.

The tally along with a goal from Cindy Buchanan and Scott Brown helped post Livin’ the Vision to a 4-0 lead after one chucker.

As it was beginning to look like LTV was going to run away with the match, pardon the pun, Tom Escura got on the board for Christmas Tree Farm following up a shot off the mallet of Kathy Fawser, depositing the ball into the goal.

Jacob Brown proved to be as deadly from any distance as he put home a goal from three inches out, on a rebound of a shot by Buchanan to push the lead to 7-1, before CTF rallied to score two quick goals by Juan Martinez Baez and Nick Place to cut the edge to 7-3.

Tom Escura scored eight goals for Christmas Tree Farms on Sunday

“I just have always loved polo,” said Brown after the match. “ My dad and sisters play so I was just destined to play a game that has been in my family for years. This is just such a great experience to be able to play here on the weekends with my father for such a good cause.”

Tommie Escura made a statement of his own as the second half got underway, as Escora scored five of his game total of eight tallies in the fourth and fifth chucker, cutting the lead to two at 10-8.

As if he was able to flick a switch, Brown responded in kind by blasting home three goals in a five minute span to again establish the Livin’ the Vision lead at 13-8, before Escura tacked on two more tallies making the final margin 13-10 and awarding the coveted trophy to LTV for the fifth consecutive year.

“This is such a great event,” added Brown a Unionville High School alumnus, who will be entering his senior year in the fall in Fort Collins. “Most people don’t know much about polo and it will never be main stream, but perhaps some day it will be an Olympic event, that would be awesome.