Gowanda Small Town Times

The first day of September 2023 was also the season opener for the Gowanda/Pine Valley Panthers Varsity football team. Gowanda, a Class D team, was at class C South’s Silver Creek/Forestville Black Knights. Despite the non-league match-up with a team from a higher class, Gowanda came up with a most impressive win. The Panthers shined in every facet of the game.

Gowanda had the ball first going three and out with a run and two incomplete passes for no yards. The ball was punted back to Silver Creek. The Black Knights moved the ball from their own 40 to the Gowanda 43 with five running plays bringing up a 4th and 1. Gowanda stood strong stopping the short yardage play to take the ball back on downs. After three runs and a penalty, Gowanda punted again. Silver Creek started to stumble on their next series, losing a total of 13 yards, forcing them to punt from their own 19. The Gowanda offense started to roll from that point. Getting a drive start on the Silver Creek 37, Gowanda moved the ball to the 25 for their first 1st Down of the game. A penalty moved them back to the 30 setting the stage for a 30-yard touchdown pass on 2nd and 15. The 2-point conversion pass was good and Gowanda had an 8-0 lead. There was another Silver Creek 4 and out. The following punt was returned to the Silver Creek 46. Gowanda’s next drive resulted in a second touchdown with 9:51 left in the second quarter. Another 2-point conversion pass made the score 16-0. Silver Creek continued to struggle on offense though the 1st half and the next Gowanda drive also came up just short giving the ball back to Silver Creek on their own 24. The Black Knights lost 9 yards on that next series capped by a punt that was blocked by Pine Valley’s Cameron Slade. With a drive start on the Silver Creek 25, Gowanda scored with a pass on the next play. This time the conversion failed and the Gowanda lead was 22-0. Silver Creek had one final shot in the half with 1 minute left. They had 12 yards to their own 45 with 10 seconds left on the clock. On the fina play of the half, Silver Creek put the ball up on a long pass that was intercepted by Gowanda’s Quentin Centner as time ran out.

Gowanda scored twice more in the 3rd quarter. Jon Sheldon pulled down a pick-6 taking the score to 30-0 after the conversion. Then a 25-yard Cameron Slade run, plus the 2-point conversion, put the game out of reach at 36-0. With the game all but decided, Silver Creek managed to collect 14 points in the 4th quarter while Gowanda added a final 6 to their tally.

Top players for Gowanda were (#20) Winter Mentley-Peters (7 carries/89 yards/1 TD; 2 receptions/20 yards; 2 sacks), (#21) Brayden Smith (8 carries/49 yards; 2 receptions/6 yards), (#44) Cameron Slade (5 carries/47 yards/1 TD), (#2) Carter Capozzi (4 Carries/17 yards; completed 10 of 17 Passes/89 yards/3 TDs) and (#5) Quentin Centner (2 receptions/54 yards; 1 interception). Also making big contributions were (#34) Noah Lauer (4 carrries/14 yards), (#36) Kaleb Smith (9 carries/9 yards), (#11) Trelin Warrior (1 carry/4 yards; 2 receptions/4 yards), (#17) Jon Sheldon (1 reception/5 yards; 1 interception), (#66) Aiden Ackley (2 sacks) and (#51) Michael Horth (1 sack).