Gowanda Small Town Times

Photo: Gowanda’s Winter Rivera (#20) fires a low shot up the middle to open the scoring against Newfane. He would score often in this May 10, Senior Night, game.

As the Spring sports season begins to wind down, three Gowanda teams celebrated Senior Night on May 10. Senior Night for each team recognizes the Senior Class members of the team before their last home game of the regular season.

At Gowanda’s Lady Panther Park the Gowanda Varsity softball team hosted Pine Valley on the 10th. Gowanda got off to a slow start in the game falling behind 2-1 in the 1st inning. After two innings of scoreless play, Gowanda pulled together a 3-run 4th inning to take the lead, 4-2. The Gowanda advantage ballooned to 9-2 in the 5th inning. Pine Valley was limited to a single 6th inning run for the 9-3 final. Leading the way for Gowanda was Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens with two hits, including a double, and two RBIs. Jada Geiger and Lily Bobseine both contributed a run, a double and an RBI. Also credited with RBIs were Holland Browning (1 run, 2 RBIs) and Kailyn Farner (1 run, 1 RBI). Rounding out the Gowanda scoring with single runs were Addison Kota, Hailey Christopher and Alhanna Gabel.

Meanwhile, both of the Gowanda Varsity lacrosse teams had games at Hillis Field. The Gowanda boys lacrosse team hosted a winless Newfane team. In a very one-sided event, Gowanda ran up a 23-0 win. That started 40 seconds into the game with Winter Rivera launching the ball into the goal. Rivera also closed out the 1st quarter scoring with 46 seconds left in the period to put Gowanda up 8-0. It was 17-0 by halftime. In the shutout, Gowanda goalies Faolan Quinn and Alanson Stafford had an easy night. They faced just two shots each on the night. Winter Rivera led all scorers with 10 goals and 3 assists. Scoring two goals each were Nakotah Jackson (2 goals, 6 assists), Ethan Steep rock (2 goals, 2 assists), Jessup Stevens (2 goals) and Seneka Jackson (2 goals). Getting extra playing time due to the one-sided score, five other players scored single goals in the game. They were Ha’tsihgahdo:d Stevens, Benjamin Krajewski, Christopher Burger, Hodaweo:je Wisniewski and goalie, Faolan Quinn.

The Gowanda Varsity girls lacrosse team played before the boys took the field hosting Eden. It was a very strange game where the 1st half and 2nd half couldn’t have been more different. Gowanda took the early lead as Aurora Stevens scored 3 minutes and 48 seconds into the game. Ke’ya Stevens scored two minutes later and Gowanda had a 2-0 lead. After an Eden score, Ke’ya Stevens gave a two goal lead back to Gowanda. Midway through the 1st half, a penalty was called on the Gowanda goalie. That gave the ball to Eden with the goalie moved to corner of the field as play resumed. In what amounted to an empty net goal Eden closed the score to 3-2. Several minutes later Gowanda’s Karice John came racing up the middle, launching the ball into the net. The score was disallowed on an offsides call. Eden tied the game at 3 with 8:25 still left in the half. Two minutes after that, Aurora Stevens put Gowanda back in front 4-3. Just when it was starting to look like Gowanda might go into halftime with a lead, Eden scored with 19 seconds still on the clock.

In the 2nd half Eden went from looking very disorganized to being super efficient. They expanded their lead to 11-4 in the first ten minutes of the 2nd half. After a Ke’ya Stevens score for Gowanda interrupted that streak, Eden added another three unanswered goals making the final 5-14. Ke’ya Stevens ended up with 3 goals and an assist while Aurora Stevens totaled 2 goals and an assist. Cadence Luther was credited with 2 assists. Gowanda goalie faced 24 shots on the night, the bulk of those coming in the 2nd half.