Gowanda Small Town Times

It has not been a good season for the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity girls soccer team up to this point. Through four games, the team had been outscored 18-3 with Sarah Kruszka scoring all three of those goals. September 13 was a different story.

The girls soccer team was at Cattaraugus-Little Valley for a game on the 13th. Despite their ongoing ball control issues, the Pine Valley Lady Panthers battled on. Cattaraugus took a 1-0 lead 12 minutes and 43 seconds into the 1st half. With 5 minutes left before halftime, Gowanda’s Samantha Collins scored to tie the game. For the first time this season, Pine Valley was not down by two or more goals at halftime. Seven minutes into the second half it was Pine Valley’s Rayne Bruyer scoring to give the team their first lead of the season. The 2-1 advantage for the Lady Panthers held until there was just under 4 minutes left in the 2nd half when Cattaraugus tied the game at 2-2. With no overtime goals scored, the game ended in a tie.

Sarah Kruszka was credited with assists on both Pine Valley goals. While the Lady Panther had managed to score twice with only eight shots on goal, their goalkeeper, Destiny Lindquist again had faced a barrage of scoring attempts. Lindquist made 23 stops on 25 Cattaraugus shots to keep Pine Valley in the game.