Injuries ground Red Hawks for next game

By Darren Lum

 

Oct. 4, 2016

 

The injury to starting quarterback Rylan Gwyn at the end of the Red Hawks senior football team’s 32-0 loss to the visiting Fenelon Falls Secondary School Falcons on Friday, Sept. 30 at the Gary G. Brohman Athletic Field in Haliburton punctuated the day of loss it was for the red and white.

 

Like any football game, losses result from turnovers and yards lost on penalties. These will inevitably rob a team of  momentum and give it to the opposition and as the saying goes: when it rains it pours.

 

Besides a nice offensive sequence to end the half (stopped by the clock) and a few defensive stands, the Hawks just couldn’t mount a sustained execution for positive results on either side of the ball, which led to an apparent disintegration of confidence and morale.

 

Head coach Raavo Laidla didn’t hide his frustration about this game and the situation with his team.

 

“We’re totally injured. We have no depth We have no substitutes. Guys are going down, left right and centre and I don’t know? They’re just not tough enough I guess,” he said. “They get beat up. Sad.”

The team already had a short bench, forcing many to play defence and offence. 

 

This game proved costly, as at the start of the game the Hawks lost their tailback and best player, Kyle Cooper to injury. He did not return and remained on the sidelines without his shoulder pads for the remainder of the game. Also injured was Nick Rowden, he said. He adds quarterback Gwyn left the game at the end with what the coach is calling a separated shoulder. Shane O’Reilly, the team’s linebacker, who has not played this season, did not play due to a twisted ankle, according to Laidla.

 

The team is left now with many backup players, who are not ready to take over for the injured starters.

 

Added to the challenges, the coach said, there are players who don’t know the plays or where to play when they’re sent on to the field. The team is winless in two games and will be 0-3 after Tuesday if Laidla follows through with his plan. With the roster decimated, he will not be taking his team to Peterborough to play Crestwood on Tuesday, Oct. 4, but will use the 10 days to prepare for their third game on the schedule against Thomas A. Stewart Secondary (TASS).

 

“It’s just a disaster. Sad, you know. We got to regroup for TASS. That’s what we got to do,” he said.

 

“There’s no point going to Crestwood.”