Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Lacrosse Times Two At Hillis
Photo: Before the Gowanda Varsity girls lacrosse team took on Williamsville East on May 8, they took a group photo with Emma and Lea Golden. The game was dedicated to the Courage of Carly Fund, a Roswell Park affiliated organization providing support for children with cancer or blood disorders.
On Monday, May 8, Gowanda’s Hillis Field saw two GCS lacrosse games as both the girls and boys Varity teams played host to their Williamsville East counterparts.
For the girls team, it was their inaugural “Shooting For A Cure” game which was dedicated to the Courage of Carly Fund. The Roswell Park affiliated organization provides support for children with cancer and blood disorders. Before the game, the team gathered with Lea Golden and her daughter, Emma, for a photo. The Goldens are members of the GCS family and Emma is a Neuroblastoma survivor.
Things started out bright for Gowanda. Two minutes and 35 seconds into the game, Ke’ya Stevens scored to put Gowanda up 1-0. Stevens upped that to 2-0 20 seconds later after winning the next draw. Then Williamsville slowly started to build momentum eventually taking a 3-2 lead. Aurora Stevens evened things at 3 with 13:35 left in the half. Her shot was initially blocked by the Williamsville goalie without getting control of the ball which dropped to the ground and rolled into the goal. From that point, Williamsville scored three unanswered goals, including one as the last second of the half ticked off.
In the 2nd half Williamsville increased their lead to 7-7 before Gowanda mounted a bit of a rally. Ke’ya Stevens started that out scoring four minutes into the 2nd half. That was followed by goals from Alaina Kaczmarczyk and Cadence Luther closing the score to 7-6 with 8:26 left in the game. It was all Williamsville from there with five unanswered scores. That left the final score at 12-6. In goal for Gowanda, Nina Coulon faced 22 shots and making 10 saves.
Following the girls game it was the time for the boys game. Gowanda got off to a slow start giving up the first goal just 14 seconds into the game. They were down 4-0 before the game was two minutes old. At 9:20 Ethan Steeprock scored for Gowanda. That was followed by a score by Winter Rivera that tightened the score to 4-2. With the score at 6-2, Rivera scored again flipping the ball over his right shoulder into the goal with 1:44 left in the period. The 1st quarter ended with Gowanda down 6-3.
The game got steadily more physical. There was no scoring in the 2nd quarter until midway through the period. A Williamsville goal was answered just 17 seconds later by Ha’tsihgahdo:d Stevens. After two more Williamsville scores, Steeprock stuck again taking the score to 9-5. A Williamsville score with 8 seconds on the clock made the halftime score 10-5.
It was Ha’tsihgahdo:d Stevens keeping Gowanda in the game in the 3rd quarter. He scored three times in the period matching the Williamsville production and holding the deficit at 5 goals. With that much of a lead, the Williamsville offense slowed things down in the final quarter. It became as much about holding the ball and running the clock as it was trying to add to their total. They did get a pair of goals in the period after Gowanda sent in their backup goalie. A lone Rivera goal in the period took the final score to 15-9. Gowanda goalie, Faolan Quinn, faced 19 shots in the gave making 6 saves.
Away from Gowanda, the Gowanda track team was at Salamanca. The boys lost by a score of 44-88 and girls fell 44-92. Standing out for Gowanda, Mason Wilson won botrh the 110m (20.5) and 400m (1:08.5) hurdles events. Chase Bolen won the 800m in 2:18.3. Also, the Gowanda relay team of DerekMilne, Ethan Bachek, Mason Wilson, Chase Bolen won the 1,600m relay event in 4:14.7. The only individual Gowanda results for the girls was that Crissa Scanlan won both the shot put and discus events.