Gowanda Small Town Times

On September 19, the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball was at Randolph. With a scheduled September 14 home game against Silver Creek pushed back to the 25th, it had been a week and a half since Gowanda had seen any action. That showed in this match-up with one of the top teams in the league.

Both teams started out a bit slow with ties at one and two in Game 1. From there Gowanda’s competition drought became evident. Randolph quickly moved out to a 9-2 advantage. Eventually that grew to find Gowanda in a 20-8 hole. Gowanda was able to put together a few short spurts at the end of Game 1, but not enough to avoid a 25-17 loss.

Gowanda gave up the first three points in Game 2 before tying things at five. While they never saw a lead in the game, Gowanda did tie the score again a 10-10. A 6-point run moved Randolph into an 18-12 lead. Outscoring Gowanda in 3-1 spurts, Randolph nailed down a 25-14 win.

Down 2-0 in the match Gowanda put together their best game overall in Game 3. They even held a 4-2 advantage in the early going. While it was a hard fought, close game most of the way, Gowanda fell victim to service errors. Five Gowanda serves into the net plus two that landed out of bounds hampered their chances in the game. Quite often these free points were given up just as Gowanda had evened the score. In the end, giving one of the best teams in the league seven free points left Gowanda a 25-20 loss and a 3-0 loss in the match.

Through it all the Gowanda defense put up a valiant effort as evidenced by the number of bullets they dodged in the match. In all Gowanda players totaled 57 digs. Leading the way were Ella Luther (17 digs), Addison Kota (4 kills, 16 digs, 1 block) and Holland Browning (1 kill, 12 digs). Also having noteworthy stats were Elizabeth Green (6 kills, 1 ace, 4 digs), Corrina John (3 kills, 1 dig, 3 blocks) and Jillian Gernatt (1 kill, 15 assists, 1 ace, 5 digs). Additionally, Lauren Kelly had 1 kill and Tessa Kohn contributed 2 digs.

Meanwhile, at Allegany-Limestone the Gowanda Cross Country teams were facing off against Frewsburg, Falconer/Cassadaga Valley and Cattaraugus-Little Valley in addition to the host team. The Gowanda boys earned took 1st Place with 3rd, 4th and 5th place finishes towards a score of 27. Frewsburg was 2nd with 32. Falconer/Cassadaga, Cattaraugus-Little Valley and Allegany-Limestone did not figure in the scoring. Scoring for Gowanda were Jayson Twoguns (3rd, 17:45), Chase Bolen (4th, 18:06), Dustin Mohawk (5th 18:23), Joseph Fernandez (7th, 18:55) and Cashis Montour (8th, 18:57). Right behind them were Maddox Hudson (9th, 19:38) and Owen Farner (10th, 20:15).

In the girls race, Allegany-Limestone captured 1st place with a score of 25. Gowanda was right behind in 2nd Place with 45 edging out Frewsburg (50 points). Again, Falconer and Cattaraugus-Little Valley were not included in the scoring. Finishing in the Top 5 for Gowanda were Calie Hudson (2nd, 20:25) and Autumn Pupo (5th, 21:30). Also scoring for the Gowanda girls were Karice John (11th, 25:08), Alhanna Gabel (13th, 26:17) and Willow Mentley-Peters (14th, 26:28).

Finally on the 19th the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity boys soccer team hosted Portville. It was another tough day for the Pine Valley boys. Down 1-0 after the 1st quarter, they were in a 2-0 hole at halftime. Portville doubled their score in the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley failed to score in the game and Portville padded their score in the final quarter with three more goals for a 7-0 final.