Emlyn Patry, the York High field hockey player who lost two teeth in Saturday’s Class B state championship 3-2 loss to Gardiner, said it’s going to be “a bunch of months” before her mouth will be fully healed.
Patry, a senior midfielder, had to leave the game with 13:48 left in the second half after a midfield collision with Gardiner’s Madelin Walker. Patry was accidentally hit in the mouth with Walker’s stick.
“I remember my dad (Jeff) was on the sideline,” said Patry. “And I looked at him and said, ‘Dad, I just lost my teeth.’ And he jumped the fence.”
Patry, who was wearing her mouthguard, had two lower teeth knocked out of her mouth and another broken. She found one tooth and the piece of the broken tooth. She was helped off the field, with her father holding her teeth in his hand.
Gardiner scored 55 seconds later to take a 3-1 lead. And Patry decided she had to go back into the game. “The trainers reassured me that it was only my teeth and that otherwise I was all right,” said Patry. “I knew there were less then 15 minutes left and I had to go back in. I wasn’t going to sit and just watch.”
Still in pain, Patry scored with 7:54 left on a hard blast from the top of the circle off a penalty corner. “My teammate and one of my best friends, Katie Donovan, is my partner at the top of the circle, and I gave her a half smile and told her I was upset I was missing teeth and was in pain,” said Patry. “She told me to shake it off and shoot that ball as hard as I could. So I channeled that.”
“She leaves every ounce of herself on the field each and every game,” said York Coach Nora Happny. “She was definitely our backbone.”
Patry, who hopes to be able to play lacrosse in the spring, said the tooth that she recovered has been reinserted and splinted to another tooth. But her mouth is too swollen for any other work. “It’s going to be a long process,” she said. “Months. A bunch of months.”
Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or:
mlowe@pressherald.com
Twitter: MikeLowePPH
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