Gowanda Small Town Times

There were a couple of competitions that took place on Saturday, October 14. The football team was at Panama to take on CSP that afternoon and the Gowanda cross country team was at the Alden Bulldogs Stampede. Additionally, the Gowanda Volunteer Fire Department ran their fishing derby all weekend.

At Panama, the Gowanda Varsity football team had a tough afternoon with CSP. The Gowanda run game was nearly shutdown. Six Gowanda players gained a total of 9 yards on 15 carries. Leading rusher for the team was Cameron Slade with 10 carries for 4 yards. Gowanda did have limited success through the air. Gowanda quarterback, Carter Capozzi, comleted 13 of 27 passes for 209 yard and a air of touchdowns. He was also intercepted 3 times. The bulk of the Gowanda catches were by Jon Sheldon (7 receptions, 69 yards, 1 TD) and Quentin Centner (4 receptions, 132 yards, 1 TD). With single 4-yard receptions each were Brayden Smith and Owen Pfaffenbach.

The lack of Gowanda offense found Gowanda in a 43-6 deficit at halftime with CSP points evenly split between the 1st and 2nd quarter. Adding 7 and 6 points, respectively, in the 3rd and 4th quarters, CSP closed out the game with 56 points. Gowanda had single touchdowns in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. After both scores, 2-point conversion passes failed.

Also on Saturday, the Gowanda boys and girls cross country teams were at the Alden Stampede along with 66 other schools groups, by school size into several divisions. Gowanda competed in the Blue (small schools) division.

For the boys, there were 170 runners representing 22 schools in the Blue division. Gowanda came in 3rd as a team with a score of 162. Alden (55) took 1st Place. City Honors’ Henry Peterson came in 1st with a time of 16:19.21. The top five Gowanda boys were Jayson Twoguns (18th, 17:53.73), Chase Bolen (23rd, 18:00.12), Joseph Fernandez (33rd, 18:32.74), Cashis Montour (42nd, 18:46.27) and Maddox Hudson (74th, 19:43.31).

For the girls, Blue division had 143 runners from 18 schools. With 1st Place as a team, CSP had a score of 63. Gowanda was 11th with 270. Emma Lewis (Southwestern) took 1st Place with a time of 19:15.69. The Gowanda girls did have one Top 10 overall finisher in Calie Hudson (9th, 20:33.32). Completing the Top 5 Gowanda finishes were Autumn Pupo (26th, 21:36.40), Alhanna Gabel (106th, 25:44.04), Willow Memtley-Peters (107th, 25:50.44) and Jaylynn Elliott (112th, 26:05.31).

In non-school sports news, the Gowanda Volunteer Fire Department held their Fishing Derby on Saturday and Sunday. There were reported to be 147 registered participants for the event. The GVFD also announced that 150 Tagged Trout were sponsored totaling $8,155 worth of either cash, gift certificate or merchandise. Ten tagged fish were caught. Winners in the Adult Division were Ben Blackhall (1st, 8.16 lbs., $500), Derek Miller (2nd, 7.42 lbs., $300) and Brian Homan (3rd, 7.40 lbs., $200). In the Youth Division the following winners were announced: Derrick Chmielewski (1st, 8.28 lbs., $500), Derrick Chmielewski (2nd, 7.28 lbs., $300) and Dino Delmonte (3rd, 6.16 lbs., $200). Other prizes were also announced including First fish weighed in (Brian Homan, $50), Last fish weighed in (Hayleigh Miller, $50) and Furthest traveled (Anthony from Geismarla, LA, 1,276 miles, $100). Winners of three random drawings for $100 each were Giovanni Gallo, Aidan Carroll and Frederick Ring. Mark H. was a 50/50 winner.