Gowanda Small Town Times

Photo courtesy of GCS Athletics Dept. The Gowanda Varsity softball team got together for a group photo after winning the 2023 NY State Championship in Moriches, NY.

On Saturday, June 10, the Gowanda Varsity played in the NYSPHYAA Class C Championship game against S. S. Seward Institute. The game was played on Long Island at Moriches, NY. For the second time in two days of finals competition Gowanda was designated as the home team.

It was everything you would expect a State Finals game to be, a low-scoring contest where every mistake would be significant. In the early going the pitchers were in full control of things keeping the game scoreless up to the bottom of the 2nd inning. Gowanda opened their half of the inning with a Jada Geiger double and an Ella Luther single before the first out was registered. Both runners came home on a Hailey Christopher single just over he pitcher’s head into centerfield. That gave Gowanda an early 2-0 lead. Two more scoreless innings followed before Seward made its big move. The 5th inning saw a defensive slump by Gowanda that allowed a Seward rally. Two walks and four singles set up Seward to pull in front 3-2. They would move that to 4-2 before Gowanda rallied back in the 6th inning. Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens led off with a single. She advanced on a sacrifice fly before Geiger blasted a shot into centerfield for a single. A walk put Luther on 1st loading the bases with one out. A Holland Browning resulted in a failed attempt to catch the runner going home followed by an overthrow of 2nd base. That allowed two Gowanda runs to score. Browning later scored on a Kailyn Farner single. That brought the score to 6-4 with Gowanda in the lead heading into the 7th inning. The Gowanda defense got two of the final three outs quickly before a last gasp effort for Seward. A walk and single put the potential tying runs on base. That was shut down quickly with a hit to Lily Bobseine at 1st base for an easy final out.

Leading the Gowanda ofense were Jada Geiger (2 runs, 3 hits including a double), Ella Luther (2 runs, 1 hit), Holland Browning (1 run, 1 hit, 2 RBI) and Hailey Christopher (1 hit, 2 RBI). Also figuring prominently were Kailyn Farner (1 hit, 1 RBI) and Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens (1 run). Pitching for Gowanda, Addison Kota gave up 6 hits and 6 walks while securing 7 strikeouts.

Photo: Screen capture from the NFHS Network stream of the June 9 NYSPHSAA Class C Semi-Final softball game. Addison Kota slides into home base to put Gowanda up to stay 3-2.

The Gowanda Varsity softball team was on Long Island in Moriches, NY for a New York State semi-final game in Class C. They faced Thomas A. Edison high school in the game. Since Randolph knocked the team out of a 1st Place divisional title in the regular season, Gowanda has been on a tear in the playoffs. The team grabbed Gowanda’s first ever Section 6 softball title and have continued to roll on from there. On this night, it would be “lights out” for Edison in a very close contest.

In the 1st inning, Gowanda retired the first three Edison batters in order. While they managed to get runners to both 3rd and 4th base in the bottom of the inning, Gowanda came away empty leaving the game scoreless after one inning. In the 2nd inning, Edison grabbed a 1-0 lead with a walk and a misplayed single into left field. That lead held into the 4th inning.

Gowanda shut down Edison in the top of the 4th inning before making their biggest offensive surge of the game in the bottom of the inning. Gowanda’s 1st two batters, Jada Geiger and Ella Luther, both singled to start things out. Then a Holland Browning double scored Geiger tying the game at 1-1. Bases were loaded with no outs as Hailey Christopher was walked. Luther scored when a hit by Lani Farner was initially bobbled by the Edison pitcher for an RBI single. With Gowanda in the lead 2-1 the game moved into the 5th inning.

A hit misplayed by Gowanda turned a single into a triple. That runner scored on a sacrifice fly. The game was tied at two going to the bottom of the inning. Gowanda pitcher, Addison Kota led off with a single into left field. Two outs would be registered before a Holland Browning double deep into center field scored Kota. Gowanda was up 3-2 heading to the 6th inning. The 6th inning went scoreless as both teams tightened up on defense. That led to a final inning where Edison batters were retired in order giving Gowanda the 3-2 sending them to the state Class C Championship game.

In a unique experience for the Gowanda community, the Hollywood Theater held a watch party for the game. A very vocal outpouring of the Gowanda community was on hand at the theater watching the play-by-play as the game progressed. Midway through the game, the announcer on the stream gave a shout out to the crowd at the Hollywood Theater prompting a huge reaction from the spectators.

Photo: A black bus carrying the Gowanda Varsity softball teams heads down West Main Street in Gowanda on the way to the New York State Class C Championship games. The bus was escorted through Gowanda by an entourage of fire vehicles from a variety of area fire departments.

On June 7, the Gowanda Varsity softball team left for Long Island to play in the final 2023 NYSPHSAA Class C games of the season. They will meet Thomas A. Edison Senior High at Moriches, NY for a semi-finals Class C Game. That game to be played at 6 PM on Friday, May 9, will be streamed on the NFHS Network.

The black bus carrying the softball team was escorted through Gowanda by a large assortment of fire vehicles from various area fire companies. Starting at the high school shortly after 3:00 PM, the procession made its way down West Main Street to Buffalo Street. It then followed Buffalo Street to Caroline where it cut over to Aldrich Street allowing it to pass by the Elementary School.

Moriches, NY is located deep into Long Island, approximately 70 miles past New York City.

On May 25, the #1 seed Gowanda Varsity baseball team hosted #4 CSP for a Section 6 Class C Semi-Final game. The game got off to a turbulent start. After holding CSP off the scoreboard in the top of the 1st inning, Gowanda ran up a total of seven runs in the bottom of the inning. It was an inning that saw six Gowanda batters walked and two runs walked in. Gowanda’s leadoff batter, Blake Herman, was initially walked and later scored on a passed ball. John Ondus was put on 1st base after being grazed with an inside pitch. Alex Pachucinski had a pair of singles in the inning, the first led to him scoring himself and the second scored Madden Lay and Brayden Smith. Things reversed in the next inning with CSP pulling together four singles and two triples for five unanswered runs of their own. Things settled down past that point past that point and Gowanda’s 7-5 advantage held into the 4th inning. Despite getting several runners on base past that point, CSP only locked down a single 5th inning run the rest of the way. Gowanda added to their lead with a pair of runs in the 4th inning and three more in the 5th for a 12-6 final score.

Leading the way for Gowanda were John Ondus (3 runs, 1 RBI, 1 double), Blake Herman (2 runs, 1 RBI) and Cole Herman (2 runs). Also figuring prominently were Madden Lay (1 run, 3 RBIs), Alex Pachucinski (1 run, 2 RBIs) and Logan Ruff (1 run, 2 RBIs). Additional single runs were scored by Tyler Smith and Brayden Smith). Pitching duties were shared by Alex Pachucinski ( [3 innings] 5 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts) and Carter Capozzi ( [4 innings] 4 hits, 4 strikeouts).

May 25 also found the #3 Gowanda Varsity girls lacrosse team in the Class D Semi-Final game at #2 Eden. The game was the reverse of the last meeting of the two teams where Gowanda played Eden to a halftime tie before falling apart in the 2nd half. In this game, Eden built a 7-0 shutout going to the halftime break with the 2nd half being a 3-3 tie. That still gave Eden a 10-3 win. Ke’ya Stevens scored two of the Gowanda goals. The other was scored by Cadence Luther. Gowanda goalie, Kiernan Quinn made 10 saves on 20 shots faced.

Gowanda has had an exceptional post-season so far. Now three days into the first full week of Sectionals playoff games, no Gowanda team has lost a game. Baseball, Softball and the boys and girls lacrosse teams have all posted wins.

The Gowanda Varsity softball team has been particularly motivated this season. After losing two close games to Silver Creek and one to Randolph that cost them a 1st Place finish in their division, the coach commented that they should have won all of their league games and would have, if not for critical errors. The team entered the playoff eager to prove that they were as good as anyone. Gowanda also had some extra incentive in the game as the championship round games were already scheduled to be played at Gowanda’s Lady Panther Park and they were determined to make it into that game.

Having taken down #2 Randolph in the Pre-Quarter round, #7 seeded Gowanda set its sights on a #6 Silver Creek team that had just rolled over #2 Wilson 22-2. The game started out very tight with no score through two innings. In the 3rd inning Silver Creek got on the board first with a single run. That 1-0 lead didn’t last long as Gowanda ran up
three runs in the next inning. Gowanda’s 3-1 lead held up into the 5th inning where they added a pair of runs to their total. Silver Creek countered those two runs in the 6th, but that is where they were stopped. Gowanda came away with a 5-3 win. Leading the Gowanda offense were Addison Kota (2 runs, 1 double) and Ella Luther (1 run, 2 RBIs).
Holland Browning and Corrina John each also scored single runs in the game. Additional support came from Kailyn Farner (2 RBIs) and Jada Geiger (1 RBI). Kota also pitched a 3-hitter for Gowanda with 5 walks and 4 strikeouts.

The Gowanda Varsity boys lacrosse was also in action in the 24th. Seeded 5th, they had a Quarter-Final game at #4 Medina. Gowanda came out strong building a 10-6 lead in the first half. That momentum carried into the second half with Gowanda adding 6 to their score against 3 for Medina. The 16-9 win sends them into a Semi-Final game against the #1 seed, East Aurora. Winter Rivera led Gowanda scorers with five goals and two assists. Adding three goals each were Ha’tsihgahdo:d Stevens, Nakotah Jackson and Cashis Montour. Rounding out the Gowanda scoring were Ethan Steep rock (1 goal, 2 assists) and Jessup Stevens (1 goal). In goal Faolan Quinn made 10 saves on 19 shots.