Gowanda Small Town Times

As the regular season for Fall Sports is winding down, October 17 was a very busy day. The Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball had a extremely important game against Cattaraugus-Little Valley. With C-LV just a half game behind Gowanda in CCAA East, Gowanda’s hold on 2nd Place in the division was on the line. Additionally, cross country was at Maple Grove and the soccer playoffs were getting started.

At Cattaraugus, Gowanda took the early lead in Game 1. It was a game that remained close throughout. The game ebbed and flowed with Gowanda building leads only to have Cattaraugus close the gap. Gowanda’s largest lead of the came at a score of 18-13 before Cattaraugus rallied back to within a point at 21-20. From there Gowanda cruised to a 25-22 win. Game 2 was much the same with Gowanda building leads only to fall back again. The hard fought battle saw a tie score at 2, 9, 17 and 24 before Gowanda secured a 26-24 win. Cattaraugus came out strong in Game 3 moving into a quick 3-1 advantage. The gap maxed out at 6 points at 10-4. Gowanda slowly clawed their way back, but could not do better than to close the margin to a single point at 16-15. Cattaraugus pushed back into a 20-15 lead that they rode to a 25-21 win. With Gowanda up 2-1 in the match, game 4 was very important to both teams. While the game remained close in the early going, another early 3-1 Cattaraugus lead would see the game tied at 7 as Gowanda pulled ahead. A 5-point run with Addison Kota serving would eventually give Gowanda an 18-12 lead. From there they were able to hold on for a 25-18 victory and a 3-1 match win.

As a side note, Sydney Smith got her first two varsity career aces in the game. Full game stats are below.
Aubrie Heron 13 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 2 blocks
Corrina John 8 kills, 2 digs, 11 blocks
Addison Kota 8 kills, 1 assist, 2 aces, 20 digs
Elizabeth Green 7 kills
Holland Browning 5 kills, 2 aces, 28 digs, 1 block
Jillian Gernatt 37 assists, 1 ace, 6 digs
Sydney Smith 2 aces, 5 digs
Tessa Kohn 1 ace, 3 digs
Ella Luther 34 digs

The boys and girls cross country were also in action in a meet at Maple Grove along with Franklinville/Ellicottville and Fredonia. The Gowanda boys took 2nd Place as a team with 38 points behind Maple Grove (26 points) with Franklinville/Ellicottville (88 points) and Fredonia (95 points) 3rd and 4th, respectively. Gowanda was led with strong efforts by Jayson Twoguns (4th), Chase Bolen (5th), Cashis Montour (7th) and Nathan Warrior (10th).

For the girls, it was Maple Grove (25 points) in 1st place followed by Fredonia (50 points) and Gowanda (69 points). Franklinville/Ellicottville was incomplete. Gowanda’s Autumn Pupo of took 1st Place with a time of 21:17.

Over in Pine Valley, the Pine Valley /Gowanda boys soccer team hosted Silver Creek in a Class C pre-quarter final game. In a 3-0 loss, the boys season came to an end.

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.

Football 4-3, 1-3

Saturday, October 14

Gowanda/Pine Valley at CSP
Gowanda 12, CSP 56

Girls Volleyball 12-4, 10-2

Tuesday, October 10

Gowanda at Silver Creek
Gowanda 3, Silver Creek 0
25-9/25-17/25-13

Wednesday, October 11

Gowanda at Eden
Gowanda 1, Eden 3
15-25/25-22/13-25/27-29

Thursday, October 12

Randolph at Gowanda
Gowanda 0, Randolph 3
21-25/19-25/15-25

Cross Country

Tuesday, October 10

Gowanda at Southwestern
boys
1st Southwestern 25 pts.
2nd Gowanda 39 pts.
3rd Olean 65 pts.
Dunkirk incomplete

girls
1st Southwestern 26 pts.
2nd Gowanda 52 pts.
3rd Olean 54 pts.
Dunkirk incomplete

Saturday, October 14

Alden Bulldogs Stampede [67 schools]

Blue (small schools) division

boys [22 schools/170 runners]
1st Alden 55
3rd Gowanda 162
22nd Dansville 548

girls [18 schools/143 runners]
1st CSP 63
11th Gowanda 270
18th Tonawanda 420

Boys Soccer 1-15, 1-9

Tuesday, October 10

Ellicottville at Pine Valley/Gowanda
- Senior Night -
Pine Valley 0, Ellicottville 11

Thursday, October 12

Pine Valley/Gowanda at Randolph
Pine Valley 0, Randolph 11

Girls Soccer 3-11-2, 3-7-2

Wednesday, October 11

Pine Valley/Gowanda at Portville
Pine Valley 0, Portville 9

Friday, October 13

Pine Valley/Gowanda at Silver Creek/Forestville
Pine Valley 0, Silver Creek 1

[photo] Pictured is Gowanda’s Holland Browning (#4) going down after a dig during the home game versus Randolph. Looking on is Ella Luther (#20).

On October 12, 2023 two Gowanda-connected teams fell to Randolph teams. There were only two Varsity games on Thursday both against Randolph. The Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team hosted Randolph and the Pine Valley Varsity boys soccer team was at Randolph.

With Randolph Varsity girls volleyball team standing unbeaten at the top of the CCAA East, Gowanda was close behind and could have taken over the top spot with a win. While doing so was certainly a possible task, it would have taken Gowanda’s best effort. Unfortunately, that didn‘t happen. It was an imperfect showing by Gowanda that left them in 2nd Place just a ½ game ahead of Cattaraugus-Little Valley, who they will square off with next week. The Gowanda lapses were not limited to the team as the scoreboard operator also missed Gowanda points in both the 1st and 3rd games.

Game 1 started off looking promising as Gowanda took the first point and soon was in a 6-1 lead. Aided by a number of Gowanda errors, Randolph climbed back into the game pulling into a tie at 10-10. After Randolph had gained a 1-point lead, Gowanda tied things again at 11. With Jillian Gernatt serving, a spirited volley ended as the ball went out of bounds. Initially, it appeared to be a point for Randolph, but the ruling on the play had Gernatt serving for the second time with the scoreboard still showing 11-11. (For the remainder of this game description keep in mind that the score showing on the scoreboard had Gowanda at a point less than they actually had.) Gowanda moved out to a 15-11 lead that slid back into a tie at 17. It was also tied at 18 and 20 before a Randolph surge gain them a 25-22 win.

Game 2 was all Randolph with them taking the first point and taking an early 4-1 lead. Gowanda did manage to tie the game at 4, 5 and 6, but never held a lead. The Randolph advantage slowly grew to max out at 19-13. A 25-19 win gave Randolph a 2-0 lead in the match. Game 3 was much like the previous one with the exception that Randolph held a lead throughout the game. After falling behind 4-1, Gowanda scored the next point, but steadily lost ground from there. With the score, 19-12 a Corrina John block for a score sent Aubrie Heron back to serve. As Heron was serving, the scoreboard still showed Gowanda behind 12-19 with the 13th point not added. It certainly didn’t make a difference in the outcome as this game was never close. A 25-16 Randolph win gave them a 3-0 win in the match.

Overall, the Gowanda stats from the game were very similar to those of the first game against Randolph. They are detailed below:

Aubrie Heron 5 kills, 3 aces, 2 digs, 3 blocks
Holland Browning 3 kills, 14 digs
Addison Kota 3 kills, 1 assist, 2 aces, 3 digs
Elizabeh Green 3 kills
Corrina John 1 kill
Lauren Kelly 1 kill, 1 dig, 4 blocks
Jillian Gernatt 15 assists, 1 ace, 5 digs
Tessa Kohn 1 ace, 5 digs
Ella Luther 2 aces, 23 digs

Meanwhile at Randolph, the Pine Valley/Gowanda closed out their regular season with an 11-0 loss to Randolph. Randolph had 4-goal efforts in both the 1st and 3rd quarters. They added 1 point and 2 points in the 2nd and 4th quarters, respectively. They finished the regular season with a record of 1-9 in CCAA Division 3-East.

With the big showdown with Randolph just around the corner, the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team was at Eden on October 11 for a non-league game. Coming off an easy win over Silver Creek it was a valuable tune-up for the team. The game promised to be challenging as Eden had previously rolled over Randolph 3-0 [25-15/25-22/25-17].

In Game 1 at Eden, Gowanda started out with quick a 3-1 lead before slipping back into a 3-3 tie. Eden gradually pulled away from there. The gap maxed out at ten points at 23-13. The teams traded points to the eventual Eden 25-15 win. Game 2 was close to start with the scored tied at each point from 1 through 5 before Gowanda started to get some separation. The Gowanda advantage reached 4 points at 12-8 and wavered between 4 points and 3 points before a one-time 5-point Gowanda lead at 21-16 prompted an Eden timeout. Eden came back with a spurt that brought them into a tie at 22-22. Gowanda grabbed the next point bringing their most powerful server, Holland Browning, up. Gowanda secured the next two points for the 25-22 win to tie the match at 1 game each.

Game 3 also started out tight with ties at 1 through 3. Eden ramped things up blitzing into an 8-4 early advantage that grew to 18-8. From that point, Eden rolled on to win the game 24-13. Game 4 was an all-out battle. Gowanda clawed back from an early 8-3 deficit to pull into a tie at 10. The game was also tied at 12 and 13 before Gowanda moved into a 21-15 lead. Eden worked their way back into a tie at 22. The lead was tossed back and forth from there. A 24-22 Eden lead slid into a 25-24 Gowanda lead. The teams traded 1-point leads until Eden pulled away for a 29-27 win to take the match 3-1.

The power of the Gowanda defense to the Eden attack is evidenced by the total of 100 Gowanda digs registered as a team. Nine Gowanda players had one or more digs in the game and two players had more than 25. Full stats are below.

Aubrie Heron 7 kills, 1 ace, 3digs, 1 block
Corrina John 6 kills, 4 digs, 9 blocks
Holland Browning 4 kills, 1 ace, 29 digs
Addison Kota 4 kills, 3 assists, 18 digs, 2 blocks
Elizabeth Green 3 kills, 1 ace, 1 dig
Lauren Kelly 3 kills, 1 dig
Jillian Gernatt 2 kills, 21 assists, 1 ace, 7 digs
Ella Luther 1 assist, 26 digs
Tessa Kohn 11 digs

Meanwhile at Portville, the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity girls soccer team had a challenge of their own. Portville went up 4-0 at halftime heading to a 9-0 final score. In this game Pine Valley did not manage a single shot on goal and did not release their own goaltender stats.