Gowanda Small Town Times

[photo] Winter Mentley-Peters (#20) turns the corner early in the Gowanda home football game against Franklinville.

The Gowanda Varsity football team saw its first action at Gowanda’s Hillis Field on September 15. Visiting team for the game was Franklinville/Ellicottville. While Gowanda had opened the season with a pair of easy wins against weak teams, this night the competition was against one of the best. Although the game eventually collapsed into a 35-12 Gowanda loss, it was a much better game than the score suggests.

In the early going this was a largely defensive battle. Franklinville opened with a 7-play 18-yard drive that ended with a diving Gowanda interception as the ball was about to hit the ground. Gowanda’s first play was a 22-yard pass to Quentin Centner. They eventually stalled and turned the ball back over on downs on a 4th-and-2 on the Franklinville 22. The next two series for each team that ended in punts as the game pushed into the second quarter. With 4:35 left in the half, Franklinville had the ball back again. On the second play of that drive, Franklinville connected on a pass and run down the left side for 58 yards and a touchdown. It was 0-7 after the extra point kick. The next Gowanda series consisted of a 5-yard penalty, a 5-yard quarterback run, an incomplete pass and quarterback fumble that was returned to just barely reach the end zone. The Franklinville lead was now 14-0 with 2:26 left in the half. Gowanda answered driving from their own 20 all the way to the end zone. That drive opened with a 33-yard Winter Mentley-Peters reception of a pass that was initially bobbled before being pulled in. There was a 21-yard reception by Winter Rivera that moved the ball to the Franklinville 19-yard line. From there another pass was grabbed by Centner for the touchdown. That brought the score to 6-14 after a failed 2-pt conversion with 1:09 left on the clock. Gowanda kicked off one last time in the half. Franklinville fielded that kick on their 18 and returned it to the Gowanda 45. A Gowanda penalty at he end of the run gave Franklinville the ball on the 35. That set them up for one additional score in the half. Franklinville took a 21-6 lead into halftime.

In the second half, Gowanda continued to struggle. Franklinville, on the other hand, seemed to be newly inspired by the ending events of he first half. They started picking up yardage in big chunks adding another two touchdowns to their tally. Gowanda did manage one final 60-yard drive in the closing minutes of the game. That drive nearly stalled on 4th-and-13 on the Gowanda 43 when Gowanda quarterback, Carter Capozzi, connected with Rivera for 44 yards to the 9. Cameron Slade ran the ball in from there. The 2-point conversion pass was knocked away leaving the score at 12-35. Time ran out in the game with a couple of Franklinville kneel-downs.

At quarterback for Gowanda, Carter Capozzi completed 9 of 21 passes for 176 yards and 1 touchdown with 1 interception.

Scoring for the Panthers were Quentin Centner (3 receptions, 82 yards, 1 touchdown) and Cameron Slade (14 carries, 79 yards, 1 touchdown). Also prominent for Gowanda were Winter Mentley-Peters (3 carries for 16 yards; 1 reception for 33 yards) and Winter Rivera (3 carries for 23 yards; 3 receptions for 49 yards). Also figuring in the offensive statistics were Evan Fort (7 carries, 20 yards) and Trelin Warrior (2 receptions for 9 yards).

Back at Pine Valley, the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity girls soccer team hosted Westfield/Brocton in a non-league contest. In a strong effort by the Pine Valley/Gowanda girls, they fell just short 4-3. It was a particularly strong 1st half for Pine Valley. Lauren Hostetter scored for Pine Valley six minutes into the game assisted by Samantha Collins. A minute later Sarah Kruszka scored with assist credited to Katie King. Pine Valley was up 2-0. Westfield answered with goals at 22:00 and 33:00 to tie the game at 2-2 by half time. Collins scored three minutes into the 2nd half to put Pine Valley back in front. Westfield tied things back up just past the midpoint of the second half. The final, and deciding goal came with five minutes left. Westfield went up 4-3 and held that lead for the final score. Once again Destiny Lindquist was strong in goal for Pine Valley facing 22 shots. The Pine Valley offense was also unusually productive managing to get 17 shots on goal.