Gowanda Small Town Times

Even after a couple sunny days over the weekend, this afternoon photo from Sunday, March 24, shows a fair amount of snow still on thhe GCS softball field. You can also see the baseball field in the distance.

Spring seemed to making an early arrival. Several weeks of sunny days and pleasant temperatures had given the Gowanda Spring sports teams plenty of chances to practice as opening day approached. After a cool, but sunny, St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, the weather shifted abruptly. Light snowfalls and below freezing temperatures through the week brought a return to Winter just as the Spring sports were about to kick off.

Beginning with Wednesday the 20th, all of the Gowanda Spring sports teams had been scheduled to play their first games. In the end, only Varsity boys lacrosse played as scheduled.

The first scheduled game of the Spring season was originally to be a home game for the Gowanda Varsity girls lacrosse team. That game was postponed to Friday the 22nd before being cancelled.

A Thursday game at East Aurora for the Gowanda Varsity boys lacrosse team did managed to be played as scheduled. Details below.

A Friday Varsity softball game was cancelled. The Gowanda Varsity baseball team was scheduled for a home game on Saturday the 23rd. That was postponed to Sunday before being cancelled.

While the Varsity boys lacrosse team was the only team to play to date, it was a very exciting way to open the Spring sports season. East Aurora was able to clear their artificial turf field well enough to play on schedule. Still, the field was ringed with snow piles from the cleared field and everything else, including the beachers was still coated with snow. With temperatures in the 30s, the 7pm game under the lights got underway.

The first quarter started with 15 minutes showing on the clock, instead of the regulation 12 minutes per quarter. After Gowanda missed on their first shot, East Aurora opened the scoring just short of 1-1/2 minutes into the game. Just over 3 minutes later, Gowanda scored to tie things up. Gowanda went on to pull into a 4-1 lead by the end of the quarter.

The 2nd quarter was hard fought and the most productive one of the game. Both teams added 4 goals in the period. At halftime, Gowanda was up 8-5. The 3rd period belonged to East Aurora. The reverse of the opening quarter, East Aurora outpaced Gowanda 4-1 with two East Aurora goals coming in the last 36 seconds of the period. Heading to the final quarter the game was tied at 9.

The East Aurora surge continued into the 4th quarter. That allowed them to build an 11-9 advantage. With time running short, Gowanda finally scored again dropping the Eastora lead to a sngle goal. With 1:49 left on the clock, the teams took a final time out before the end of the game. With just 24 seconds to go Gowanda tied the game at 11 all. That brought up a 4 minute overtime period. The winning goal came with 2:13 left in the overtime period. Gowanda came away with a 12-11 win.

Leading the Gowanda attack were Ha’tsihgahdo:d Stevens (5 goals, assists) and Croix Stevens (5 goals, 1 assist). Also scoring for Gowanda were Winter Rivera (1 goal, 3 assists) and Jessup Stevens (1 goal). While not scoring, Nakotah Jackson did manage to get a shot on goal in the game.