Gowanda Small Town Times

[photo] Winter Mentley-Peters (#20) turns the corner early in the Gowanda home football game against Franklinville.

The Gowanda Varsity football team saw its first action at Gowanda’s Hillis Field on September 15. Visiting team for the game was Franklinville/Ellicottville. While Gowanda had opened the season with a pair of easy wins against weak teams, this night the competition was against one of the best. Although the game eventually collapsed into a 35-12 Gowanda loss, it was a much better game than the score suggests.

In the early going this was a largely defensive battle. Franklinville opened with a 7-play 18-yard drive that ended with a diving Gowanda interception as the ball was about to hit the ground. Gowanda’s first play was a 22-yard pass to Quentin Centner. They eventually stalled and turned the ball back over on downs on a 4th-and-2 on the Franklinville 22. The next two series for each team that ended in punts as the game pushed into the second quarter. With 4:35 left in the half, Franklinville had the ball back again. On the second play of that drive, Franklinville connected on a pass and run down the left side for 58 yards and a touchdown. It was 0-7 after the extra point kick. The next Gowanda series consisted of a 5-yard penalty, a 5-yard quarterback run, an incomplete pass and quarterback fumble that was returned to just barely reach the end zone. The Franklinville lead was now 14-0 with 2:26 left in the half. Gowanda answered driving from their own 20 all the way to the end zone. That drive opened with a 33-yard Winter Mentley-Peters reception of a pass that was initially bobbled before being pulled in. There was a 21-yard reception by Winter Rivera that moved the ball to the Franklinville 19-yard line. From there another pass was grabbed by Centner for the touchdown. That brought the score to 6-14 after a failed 2-pt conversion with 1:09 left on the clock. Gowanda kicked off one last time in the half. Franklinville fielded that kick on their 18 and returned it to the Gowanda 45. A Gowanda penalty at he end of the run gave Franklinville the ball on the 35. That set them up for one additional score in the half. Franklinville took a 21-6 lead into halftime.

In the second half, Gowanda continued to struggle. Franklinville, on the other hand, seemed to be newly inspired by the ending events of he first half. They started picking up yardage in big chunks adding another two touchdowns to their tally. Gowanda did manage one final 60-yard drive in the closing minutes of the game. That drive nearly stalled on 4th-and-13 on the Gowanda 43 when Gowanda quarterback, Carter Capozzi, connected with Rivera for 44 yards to the 9. Cameron Slade ran the ball in from there. The 2-point conversion pass was knocked away leaving the score at 12-35. Time ran out in the game with a couple of Franklinville kneel-downs.

At quarterback for Gowanda, Carter Capozzi completed 9 of 21 passes for 176 yards and 1 touchdown with 1 interception.

Scoring for the Panthers were Quentin Centner (3 receptions, 82 yards, 1 touchdown) and Cameron Slade (14 carries, 79 yards, 1 touchdown). Also prominent for Gowanda were Winter Mentley-Peters (3 carries for 16 yards; 1 reception for 33 yards) and Winter Rivera (3 carries for 23 yards; 3 receptions for 49 yards). Also figuring in the offensive statistics were Evan Fort (7 carries, 20 yards) and Trelin Warrior (2 receptions for 9 yards).

Back at Pine Valley, the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity girls soccer team hosted Westfield/Brocton in a non-league contest. In a strong effort by the Pine Valley/Gowanda girls, they fell just short 4-3. It was a particularly strong 1st half for Pine Valley. Lauren Hostetter scored for Pine Valley six minutes into the game assisted by Samantha Collins. A minute later Sarah Kruszka scored with assist credited to Katie King. Pine Valley was up 2-0. Westfield answered with goals at 22:00 and 33:00 to tie the game at 2-2 by half time. Collins scored three minutes into the 2nd half to put Pine Valley back in front. Westfield tied things back up just past the midpoint of the second half. The final, and deciding goal came with five minutes left. Westfield went up 4-3 and held that lead for the final score. Once again Destiny Lindquist was strong in goal for Pine Valley facing 22 shots. The Pine Valley offense was also unusually productive managing to get 17 shots on goal.

[photo] Pine Valley/Gowanda’s Jack Sheldon, right, and Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley’s Grant Gillman race to the ball in Thursday’s Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association East Division contest at Veteran’s Park. Photo courtesy of Salamanca Athletics

The Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity boys soccer team came up with their best effort this season on September 14 at Salamanca. The game against Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley resulted in a 2-2 tie in regulation competition. The game went into double overtime before Salamanca squeeked out a 3-2 win. Scoring for Pine Valley were Jack Sheldon (30:15, assist Sawyer Bradigan) and Jarrett Meyers (33:00, assist Sheldon).

It has not been a good season for the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity girls soccer team up to this point. Through four games, the team had been outscored 18-3 with Sarah Kruszka scoring all three of those goals. September 13 was a different story.

The girls soccer team was at Cattaraugus-Little Valley for a game on the 13th. Despite their ongoing ball control issues, the Pine Valley Lady Panthers battled on. Cattaraugus took a 1-0 lead 12 minutes and 43 seconds into the 1st half. With 5 minutes left before halftime, Gowanda’s Samantha Collins scored to tie the game. For the first time this season, Pine Valley was not down by two or more goals at halftime. Seven minutes into the second half it was Pine Valley’s Rayne Bruyer scoring to give the team their first lead of the season. The 2-1 advantage for the Lady Panthers held until there was just under 4 minutes left in the 2nd half when Cattaraugus tied the game at 2-2. With no overtime goals scored, the game ended in a tie.

Sarah Kruszka was credited with assists on both Pine Valley goals. While the Lady Panther had managed to score twice with only eight shots on goal, their goalkeeper, Destiny Lindquist again had faced a barrage of scoring attempts. Lindquist made 23 stops on 25 Cattaraugus shots to keep Pine Valley in the game.

[photo] Senior Class members of the Gowanda Cross Country team got together for a photo on September 12 after their only home meet of the season. Pictured, from left to right, are Alhanna Gabel, Calie Hudson, Autumn Pupo, Layla Gamble, Nikolas Ondus, Jayson Twoguns, Riley Olsen and Willow Mentley-Peters.

On September 12, the Gowanda boys and girls cross country teams hosted Jamestown for Gowanda’s only home meet of the season. Also represented with partial teams were Randolph and West Valley. The site for the meet was the Gowanda Conservation Club providing a unique coarse that winds 3.1 miles through forest trails. As it was the only home competition for the Gowanda teams, the seniors on both teams were acknowledged, along with their parents, post-race. That was followed by a dinner in honor of the seniors.

Taking 1st Place for the boys was Jamestown with a score of 11. The Gowanda boys were 2nd with 48 points. Randolph (2 runners) and West Valley (3 runners) were not included in the scoring as they did not have at least five runners in the race. Scoring for the Gowanda boys were Chase Bolen (6th, 17:40), Dustin Mohawk (7th, 17:43), Jayson Twoguns (9th, 17:50), Cashis Montour (10th, 18:08) and Nathan Warrior (16th, 19:25).

The girls race was a bit closer. Again, 1st Place went to Jamestown (22) with Gowanda (33) taking 2nd Place. With incomplete team representation were Randolph (4 runners) and West Valley (3 runners). Scoring for the Gowanda girls were Calie Hudson (3rd, 20:17), Autumn Pupo (4th, 21:20), Karice John (7th, 24:40), Alhanna Gabel (9th, 26:49) and Willow Mentley-Peters (10th, 27:40).

Also in action on Tuesday the 12th was the Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity boys soccer team. They hosted Cassadaga Valley-Falconer. As has been the case, problems with ball control led to a lopsided loss. A 4-goal Cassadaga 1st quarter set the pace for them to grab a 6-0 lead by halftime. Cassadaga added a 7th goal in the 4th quarter after a scoreless 3rd. Pine Valley/Gowanda only managed to get one shot on goal in the game.

The Pine Valley/Gowanda Varsity girls soccer team were at Randolph on September 11 for a non-league game. The team’s ball control issues continued limiting Pine Valley/Gowanda’s ability to get shots on goal while their goaltender has more than her share of shots to defend.

By halftime, Randolph had gained a 4-0 lead. That continued to an eventual 7-1 loss for Pine Valley/Gowanda. The bright light on the team was Sarah Kruszka who scored Pine Valley’s only goal. While the Randolph goaltender faced only 7 shots in the game, Pine Valley’s Destiny Lindquist made 23 saves on 30 shots on goal.