Gowanda Small Town Times

Coming off the Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ day holiday, sports team got back in action on Tuesday, October 10. With just two weeks left in the regular Fall Sports schedules things were largely business as usual across the board.

The Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team, coming off two tough games to end the previous week, had a relatively easy game at Silver Creek. Grabbing the first three points in Game 1, Gowanda quickly built an 11-3 lead. From there, Gowanda continued to power forward extending the lead to 16-4 on the way to a 25-9 victory. The final point came on a Addison Kota ace that had deflected off the top of the net.

Gowanda carried the momentum into Game 2 taking an early 7-0 advantage. The last two points of that run came with back-to-back aces from Holland Browning. Silver Creek finally got on the board with a hard block/kill shot. With things well under control, Gowanda was able to work more players into the rotation giving them valuable game experience. Silver Creek continued to work and was able to get as close as 17-15, but could not do better than that. One unusual moment came with Gowanda ahead 22-16. A Silver Creek dig flew high into the ceiling of the gym and got stuck there forcing a re-serve with a new ball. In the end, Gowanda secured a 25-17 victory in the game going up 2-0 in the match.

Game 3 started out again with a strong Gowanda burst, this time to 5-0. Silver Creek battled back, without gaining a lead, to tie things up at 6 and 7. From there, Gowanda rebuilt their lead to 12-8 and was able to coast to a 25-13 win to sweep the match 3-0.

Leading the Gowanda effort were Aubrie Heron (7 kills, 1 ace, 2 digs), Elizabeth Green (5 kills), Holland Browning (3 kills, 4 aces, 8 digs), Addison Kota (1 kill, 4 aces, 2 digs), Ella Luther (1 kill, 1 aces, 15 digs) and Jillian Gernatt (21 assists, 3 aces). Showing up strong in support were Lauren Kelly (3 kills), Corrina John (2 kills), Sydney Smith (3 digs) and Tessa Kohn (2 digs).

In other sports news, the Gowanda Cross Country teams came off an idle week traveling to Southwestern for a meet that also included Olean and Dunkirk. For the boys, Gowanda (39 pts.) finished in 2nd Place behind Southwestern (25 pts.). Olean was 3rd with 65 pts. Dunkirk had an incomplete team of less than 5 runners and did not figure in the scoring. Top runners for the Gowanda boys were Cashis Montour, Jayson Twoguns and Chase Bolen who finished 5th, 6th and 7th, respectively.

The girls results were similar to the boys with Southwestern finishing in 1st Place with 26 points. Gowanda (52 pts.) just edged out Olean (54 pts.) for 2nd Place. Dunkirk again was incomplete. Two Gowanda girls finished in the Top 10. They were Calie Hudson (2nd) and Autumn Pupo (4th).

Meanwhile at Pine Valley, the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity boys soccer team hosted Ellicottville. It was the final home game for the team with one away game left to play in the regular season. Despite a relatively even 1st quarter that left Pine Valley down 1-0, it would not continue that close. Ellicottville scored three additional goals in both the 2nd and 3rd quarters before piling on four more in the 4th. With Pine Valley unable to score, the final score was 11-0.

On Friday, October 6, the Gowanda Varsity football team lost a golden opportunity to showoff in front of the home crowd. A scheduled game with St. Mary’s was cancelled. St. Mary’s had only played twice this season giving up 115 points without scoring a single point themselves. While the fans missed seeing quite a show by the Gowanda team they also avoided the rain that would have been a part of the second half.

Shortly before the original start time for the football game, the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team was starting play at Lake Shore in a non-league match-up. One thing that has been a strong point for the Gowanda team is their ability to outlast the competition in matches that are extended past the minimum three games. Gowanda had previously been involved in three 5-game matches, winning two of those with the one loss coming on the first game of the season. The ability to stay strong while the competition wears out served Gowanda well again at Lake Shore.

In Game 1, Lake Shore started fast grabbing an early 5-1 lead. That continued to grow through a 20-10 advantage to a 25-13 Lake Shore win. Gowanda rebounded in Game 2 taking four of the first five points. Lake Shore came back to tie the game at 5 and move into a brief 7-5 lead. Gowanda moved back into a tie at 7-7 with an Elizabeth Green ace on the way to a small lead of their own. The game was again tied at 17, 20 and 22 through 24 with Lake Shore holding the 1 point edge before slipping back. The battle continued with Gowanda up 25-24 followed by Lake Shore up 26-25 and 27-26. From a 27-all tie, Gowanda finally closed out the game with Jillian Gernatt collecting back-to-back service points for a 29-27 win.

Moving to Game 3, it was Lake Shore starting strong 5-1. That gap eventually grew to 17-8. The game was more competitive from there, but Gowanda was not able to avoid a 25-15 loss. In Game 4, an early 3-1 Gowanda start slipped back into a 5-5 tie. Fierce competition and long volleys saw a series of tie scores up to 13-13. from there Gowanda began to pull away. A 4-point run with Ella Luther serving brought the score to 21-14. The score was 22-15 as Elizabeth Green was up to serve. Starting with an ace, the Gowanda advantage went to 24-15. After a minor delay on a errant serve, Gowanda locked down the next point for a 25-16 win in the game.

With the match now tied 2-2, Gowanda went to work in Game 5. For the 4th time this season Gowanda came up strong while the opposition faded in the extended play. A 15-10 Gowanda win in the game gave them a 3-2 match win. As a measure of the intense competition in this match, Gowanda as a team recorded a total 162 digs in the game. Full stats are listed below.

Elizabeth Green 12 kills, 1 assist, 4 aces, 5 digs, 1 block
Aubrie Heron 10 kills, 1 dig, 7 blocks
Holland Browning 8 kills, 2 aces, 29 digs
Addison Kota 5 kills, 2 assists, 43 digs, 2 blocks
Lauren Kelly 5 kills, 2 digs, 4 blocks
Jillian Gernatt 1 kill, 39 assists, 1 ace, 10 digs
Corrina John 1 kill, 2 digs
Ella Luther 2 aces, 61 digs
Tessa Kohn 9 digs

Meanwhile, the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity girls soccer team was playing a rare night game at Salamanca. In a game that feature more back and forth defense than offense, Pine Valley came up short 1-0. The winning Salamanca goal came with 29:51 left in the first half. With possession of the ball in the corner and two girls positioned in front of the goal, Salamanca made a pass past the near-side girl to the second one. The Pine Valley goaltender, Destiny Lindquist, guarding against a shot from the first girl was unable to get to the other side of the net in time to keep the second girl from scoring. Lindquist did make saves on 13 other Salamanca shots. Pine Valley only managed 6 shots on goal in the game.

Football 3-2, 1-2

Friday, October 6

Saint Mary’s at Gowanda
- cancelled -

Girls Volleyball 11-2, 9-1

Tuesday, October 3

Gowanda at Pine Valley
Gowanda 3, Pine Valley 0
25-18/25-6/25-19

Thursday, October 5

Gowanda at Ellicottville
Gowanda 3, Ellicottbille 1
25-23/26-24/18-25/25-22

Friday, October 6

Gowanda at Lake Shore
Gowanda 3, Lake Shore 2
13-25/28-26/15-25/25-16/15-10

Cross Country

- no meets -

Boys Soccer 0-13, 0-7

Tuesday, October 3

Salamanca/Cattaraugus-L.V. at Pine Valley/Gowanda
Pine Valley 4, Salamanca 1

Thursday, October 5

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

Girls Soccer 2-9-2, 2-6-2

Wednesday, October 4

Franklinville at Pine Valley/Gowanda
- Senior Day -
Pine Valley 1, Franklinville 0

Friday, October 6

Pine Valley/Gowanda at Salamanca
Pine Valley 0, Salamanca 1

On October 5, the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team was at Ellicottville. From the earlier meeting in Gowanda it was expected to be a challenge where both teams would have to earn every point they got.

Ellicottville jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in Game 1 before things tightened up. Gowanda did managed to tie things at 4. It was another one of those games where both teams traded slight leads and tie scores were frequent. From a 20-20 score, Gowanda finally grabbed the final lead in the game. That lead never exceeded two points and was as narrow as 24-23 before the eventual 25-23 Gowanda win.

In Game 2 it was Gowanda taking the early lead 5-2. Ellicottville worked back into a tie at 7 on the way to their own 10-7 lead. Although Gowanda managed to get back into a tie at 13, they slipped back again. Gowanda was in a 20-14 hole before they pulled out of the skid. With Elizabeth Green serving, Gowanda pulled to within 1 at 20-19. They eventually tied the game at 22. Gowanda had 1-point leads back into ties at 23 and 24 when Addison Kota came up to serve. Back-to-back aces gave Gowanda the 26-24 win.

Down 2-0 going into Game 3, Ellicottville rose to the do or die challenge. They quickly moved into a 4-1 advantage and increased that lead to 17-10. From 22-14 down, Gowanda make a minor comeback, but was not able to prevent a 25-18 loss.

On to Game 4. It was back to both teams holding small leads with several tie scores for the first half of the game. From a 12-11 advantage, Gowanda finally made a move. Again with Kota serving, their lead grew to 16-11. Unable to take back the lead, Ellicottville did manage to pull into a tie at 18, 21 and 22 before a pair of Holland Browning kills set Gowanda up with a 24-22 advantage. One point later, Gowanda had a 3-1 match win with a game score of 25-22.

Gowanda stats are as follows:
Holland Browning 13 kills, 3 aces, 17 digs
Corrina John 6 kills, 1 dig, 9 blocks
Aubrie Heron 5 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 7 blocks
Addison Kota 2 kills, 3 aces, 13 digs, 2 blocks
Elizabeth Green 2 kills, 1 ace, 2digs
Lauren Kelly 2 kills, 1 dig, 2 blocks
Jillian Gernatt 24 assists, 1 ace, 11 digs
Ella Luther 1 ace, 43 digs
Tessa Kohn 5 digs

Over in Pine Valley, the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity boys soccer team was hosting Portville. It was another long day for the boys. In a 4-0 hole after one quarter, Pine Valley/Gowanda was down 6-0 at halftime. Portville added two goals in the 3rd plus one in the 4th quarter for a final 9-0 win.

On Wednesday, October 4, there was just one Gowanda-connected Varsity team with a game. The Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity girls soccer team hosted Franklinville. As it was the last regular season home game for Pine Valley/Gowanda it was also Senior Night.

It was game that ended in a 0-0 tie at the end of regular play. In overtime, Lauren Hostetter scored for Pine Valley/Gowanda with an assist by Samantha Collins. That gave Pine Valley/Gowanda a 1-0 win. It was the team’s 3rd win and their 2nd in a row going back to the previous week. In an unusual occurrence, Pine Valley/Gowanda outshot their opponent 13-10 with goaltender, Destiny Lindquist, getting the shutout.

Pine Valley/Gowanda still has three travel games left in the regular season.