Gowanda Small Town Times

Photo courtesy of Gowanda boys lacrosse team. Gowanda’s Winter Rivera poses after passing the 100-goal mark in his high school career.

Friday, May 12, found the Varsity boys lacrosse team and the Varsity softball team on the road while the Varsity girls lacrosse team was at home at Hillis Field. The Gowanda softball team was at Randolph for the biggest game of the regular season. Going into the game, Gowanda had 2 losses in CCAA East 1 and Randolph had one loss. That single loss had been to Gowanda. So this game was for the top spot in the division. This is becoming a regular situation for these two teams.

It was Senior Night for Randolph and things started out tight. The two teams exchanged single runs in the first inning and the score stood at 1-1 all the way into the 4th. Gowanda was again unable to score in the top of the inning. Then, in the bottom of the inning, Gowanda defensive glitches allowed Randolph to pile up five runs taking the score to 6-1. Gowanda managed a single run in the 5th inning. The score was 6-2 when Randolph was up in the bottom of the 6th inning. They padded their total with a pair of runs moving the score to 8-2. Again shutout in the final inning Gowanda took the loss. Leading the Gowanda scoring were Corina John (1 run & a double), Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens (1 run) and Addison Kota (a double and an RBI). Also prominent on the offense were Ella Luther (2 hits), Holland Browning (1 hit) and Jada Geiger (1 RBI). Addison Kota pitched for Gowanda giving up 3 hits and 5 walks against 9 strikeouts.

May 12 took the Gowanda Varsity boys lacrosse team to Medina. Another hard fought battle for the boys, they were down 12-6 at halftime on the way to a 20-11 loss. It did not come without a highlight moment, though. On his 3rd goal of the night, Winter Rivera reached the 100-goal mark for his Varsity career. Rivera ended up with 6 goals and 2 assists on the night. Also featured in the Gowanda attack was Ha’tsihgahdo:d Stevens (3 goals, 4 assists). Nakotah Jackson and Nate Warrior had goal each.

The Gowanda Varsity girls lacrosse was home versus Hamburg on the 12th. The powerful Hamburg team dominated keeping things at the Gowanda end of the field for most of the game. It was 11-0 at halftime with a final score of 18-1. With the Gowanda girls getting pushed around for most of the game shots on goal were hard to come by. Gowanda’s only goal of the game came with 13:05 left in the 2nd half. As she was falling towards the goal, Ke’ya Stevens managed to shovel the ball into the net just before she hit the ground.