By Charlie Halfin on October 16, 2023
Injuries can change a season by changing your team a little or completely. When Justin Gainer (our starting goalie) got hurt, it changed everything. It changed everything because Tyler Clemm was our backup goalie, but he was playing defense. He has done a very good job of filling in Justin’s spot. When we played Buckhannon-Upsher, Justin got kicked in the mouth going for a ball. He is ok now and is getting healthy again.
Since then, we have gotten better as a team. We are working better as a team and starting to hold our own again. Since Justin's injury, we have been 4-3-1 with an overall record of 8-5-1. It took some time to get adjusted to our new back line: Alex Himes, Bryce Kelley, Tyler Clemm, and Charlie Halfin. Now it is Alex Himes, Bryce Kelley, Jarrett Blackhurst, and Charlie Halfin. Jarrett has done an excellent job filling Tyler's spot and Tyler has done excellent filling Justin’s spot.
We played some of our toughest games without Justin, and it has been tough, but we actually beat the number one team in the state, Point Pleasant. We beat them 2-1. While it was a tough game, we fought through it as a team and won which was amazing. It was 0-0 at halftime, and then they got a goal about 5 minutes into the second half which made the score 1-0, them. Then we scored with around 6 or 7 minutes left in the game which then made the score 1-1. The game was coming to an end, but then we got a free kick with two and a half minutes left, and we scored making the game 2-1, Grafton. With two and a half minutes left, we battled it out and when it was over, we won. It was the best feeling ever.
