Gowanda Small Town Times

[photo] Gowanda’s Quentin Centner (#1) goes up for a shot early in the season opener home game against North Collins on November 27. Also seen is Troy Jimerson (#44).

The first measurable snow of November 2023 arrived on the 27th, just in time for the start of the Winter sports season. A Gowanda Varsity girls basketball non-league game at Jamestown was postponed due to possible storm conditions in the Southern tier. The game was rescheduled for December 12. That left the Gowanda Varsity boys basketball team with the honor of having the first game of the Winter season all to themselves. They hosted North Collins for a non-league match-up that was very competitive and hard fought.

North Collins scored the first two points in the game. Quentin Centner quickly put Gowanda on top from 3-point range. North Collins had their last lead in the game with a pair of foul shots put them up 6-5. Gowanda’s Trelin Warrior answered with a 3-pointer. A couple Warrior fast break baskets later and Gowanda held a 12-8 lead. North Collins battled back to tie at 12 before Gowanda pulled away again. North Collins tightened things once more and came to within one at 16-15 with a basket with 0:39 left in the 1st Quarter.

Gowanda came out fast in the 2nd Quarter with seven unanswered points capped with a Everett Stevens 3-pointer. Gowanda grew that 23-15 lead to 33-22 as halftime neared. A field goal and foul shot in the last 30 seconds of the half upped the North Collins total to 25 by the intermission.

North Collins got off to a good start in the 3rd Quarter narrowing the Gowanda lead to 35-33 and, then, tying the game for the second time at 37. Gowanda went on another run exploding their advantage to 52-38. A late North Collins basket saw the period end with a score of 52-40. A 20-point 4th Quarter was North Collins’ best production of the game, but only enough to close the gap by three points. Gowanda spent the last minute of the game repeatedly at the foul line making 6 of 10 shots to close out the game with a 69-60 win.

Leading the Panthers scoring were Trelin Warrior 21 points) and Quentin Centner (17 points). Right behind was Blake Herman with 9 points. Also scoring for Gowanda were Troy Jimerson (5 points), Seth Geiger (4 points), Croix Snow (4 points), Dominick Whalen (4 points), Everett Stevens (3 points) and Logan Roff (2 points).

Below are the Gowanda Varsity Winter sports schedules
- subject to changes -
Boys basketball
Nov. 27 vs. North Collins - non-league -
Dec. 4 at Catt.-LV - non-league -
Dec. 12 at Eden - non-league -
Dec. 12 at North Collins - non-league -
Dec. 14 at Cassadaga Valley
Dec. 18 vs Silver Creek
Dec. 21 vs. Catt.-LV - non-league -
Jan. 04 at Falconer
Jan. 05 at Springville -non-league -
Jan. 08 vs. Portville
Jan. 16 vs. Frewsburg
Jan. 18 at Randolph
Jan. 22 vs. Cassadaga Valley
Jan. 25 at Silver Creek
Jan. 30 vs Falconer
Feb. 02 at Portville
Feb. 06 vs. Eden - non-league -
Feb. 09 at Frewsburg
Feb. 13 vs Randolph
Feb. 15 vs Lake Shore - non-league -

Girls basketball
Nov. 27 at Jamestown
Dec. 01 vs. Chautauqua Lake
Dec. 06 at Springville/West Valley
Dec. 08 vs. Forestville
Dec. 12 vs. Jamestown
Dec. 13 vs. North Collins
Dec. 18 at Forestville
Jan. 05 at Pioneer
Jan. 09 at Cassadaga Valley
Jan. 12 vs. Falconer
Jan. 16 at Frewsburg
Jan. 19 at Randolph
Jan. 26 vs. Portville
Jan. 29 vs. Cassadaga Valley
Feb. 01 at Falconer
Feb. 05 vs. Frewsburg
Feb. 08 vs Randolph
Feb. 12 at Portville

Boys Bowling (boys & girls)
Dec. 08 vs. Catt-LV
Dec. 15 vs. Hinsdale
Dec. 21 vs West Valley
Jan. 04 vs Allegany Limestone
Jan. 08 vs. Salamanca
Jan. 18 at Hinsdale
Jan. 19 vs. Ellicottville
Jan. 23 vs Franklinville [boys only]
Jan. 25 at Catt-LV
Jan. 31 vs. Genesee Valley
Feb. 01 at Ellicottville

Wrestling
Dec. 01 VinLouis’s Dual
Dec. 06 vs. Springville
Dec. 08 vs. Stowa
Dec. 09 NT JV Women’s Tournament
Dec. 13 at Maple Grove
Dec. 15-16 Linda C. Knuutila Tournament
Dec. 16 Williamsville South JV Tournament
Dec. 20 at Randolph
Jan. 03 vs Franklinville

Boys Swimming (Eden/Gowanda)
Dec. 15 at Maryvale
Jan. 05 at Tonawanda
Jan. 09 at Springville
Jan. 19 at Pioneer

[photo] Pictured is Gowanda’s Holland Browning (#4) going up for a kill against Cassadaga Valley during the Class C2 Semi-Final at Gowanda on Oct. 30. Also seen in the photo are Jillian Gernatt (#2), Tessa Kohn (#14) and Aubrie Heron (#9).

As October transitioned into November, the Fall season ended for the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team. The team had a home Class C2 Semi-Final game on Monday, October 30 against the Cassadaga Valley Lady Cougars. As a #4 seed, Gowanda managed the home game thanks to a Lady Cougars victory over #1 seed, MST. Both the team and their fans were happy to get the extra last home appearance for the season.

The first game of the match, started out very tight with 6 tie scores, and both teams having a small lead, up to a 7-7 score. From there Gowanda made a move. Up 11-8, Ella Luther came up to serve for Gowanda. A 5-point run had Gowanda out in front 16-8 and they never looked back. Gowanda held on for a 25-15 win. Game 2 was also close to start, but only to a 3-3 tie. This time Gowanda’s big run came with Jillian Gernatt serving. The team used that to balloon an 8-5 advantage to 17-5. Shortly after that, Ella Luther served up a Gowanda run from 18-7 to 24-7. The Lady Cougars managed to add another three to their total before Gowanda locked down a 25-10 win. Gowanda got off to a 3-0 start in Game 3, but Cassadaga Valley rallied to close that to 5-4 after falling behind 5-1. In this game, Gowanda’s big run came with Tessa Kohn serving. From 9-7, the teams surged out to a 19-9 lead. From there Gowanda closed the match out 3-0 with a 25-11 win. Gowanda stats for the game are below.

Holland Browning 9 kills, 6 digs, 2 blocks
Aubrie Heron 6 kills, 1 ace, 5 digs, 1 block
Addison Kota 5 kill, 1 assist, 1 ace, 8 digs, 1 block
Lauren Kelly 5 kills, 1 dig
Corrina John 3 kills, 2 digs, 4 blocks
Elizabeth Green 2 kills
Jillian Gernatt 25 assists, 3 aces, 6 digs
Tessa Kohn 4 aces, 9 digs
Ella Luther 3 aces, 14 digs

Moving on to Wednesday, November 1, and the Class C2 Finals versus Randolph at Southwestern. Randolph is a team that Gowanda has outplayed in spurts, but still managed enough small errors to have lost to twice during the regular season. This night would be a similar story. It was Gowanda’s best effort against Randolph, but still marred by too many net fouls, hand fouls and spikes that just missed landing in bounds. Many of these likely might have been missed by the officials during regular season games, but not by the elite officials on hand for the finals. Stills, too many points that would have gone to Gowanda went the other way because of these small errors. Even the commentators for the NFHS Network stream of the game commented that the match-up was much closer that what the game scores suggested.

Gowanda got off to a slow start in Game 1 putting themselves in a 8-1 hole. They never recovered from that. While Gowanda recovered from the initial skid, they still slowly lost ground the rest of the way to a 25-13 loss. Game 2 was closer in the early going with Gowanda still just a point down at 6-7. A Randolph rally set Gowanda back 6-12. Gowanda made some small gains, but only to made a big backslides. A late Gowanda run from 10-20 to 14-20 was enough to force Randolph to call a timeout to regroup. Randolph surged again and was able to lock down a 25-15 win. Down 2 games to 0, Gowanda came out strong in Game 3. From an early 2-0 Gowanda lead, the game was tied at 2 through 8 before Randolph finally saw a lead in the game. Again it was calls made for small mistakes that kept Gowanda from breaking into a bigger lead up to that point. All in all, Gowanda mistakes and a 25-kill effort on the day from Randolph’s Eve Adams sealed Gowanda’s fate. Gowanda fell 25-15 in Game 3 giving Randolph a 3-0 match win and ending the season for the Lady Panthers. Gowanda’s final game stats are as follows.

Addison Kota 4 kills, 13 digs, 2 blocks
Holland Browning 4 kills, 1 ace, 13 digs
Lauren Kelly 4 kills, 1 dig 5 blocks
Jillian Gernatt 2 kills, 17 assists, 4 digs
Aubrie Heron 2 kills, 2 digs, 2 blocks
Elizabeth Green 2 kills
Corrina John 1 kill, 1 dig, 2 blocks
Ella Luther 23 digs
Tessa Kohn 3 digs

[photo] After the finals game, the Gowanda Volleyball team posed for a team photo with their 2nd Place awards.

The following was posted online regarding a Youth Football Cheerleader competition held on Sunday, October 29.

UB GRAND CHAMPIONS!!!

First place! Best stunts! Best gymnastics! Best choreography! Highest score of the entire day!!!
We cleaned house!!! This is the same group of gals that won as freshman!!!

We are Gowanda!!!

Back on Friday, October 20, the Gowanda/Pine Valley Varsity football team hosted Randolph at Hillis Field. With tied records, both teams knew that they would face each other again the following week as playoffs started. The only thing to be determined was who would have home field. It was a run-heavy Randolph attack that prevailed over a Gowanda air campaign.

A week later on October 27 those tendencies were the same as was the outcome, but the story of the game was much different. Gowanda received the opening kickoff and went 3-and-out. Randolph’s first possession saw them move from their own 38 to the Gowanda 40 only to fall a yard short on a 4th-and-2 play. Gowanda got into high gear with their 2nd possession. After a penalty set them back 5 yards on the first play, it was full speed ahead. Gowanda quarterback, Carter Capozzi, got it started. After breaking free from a tackle in the backfield, he bolted out to the left advancing the ball 28 yards to the Randolph 38. Evan Fort took it from there, first with a 9-yard run and, then with a 29-yard touchdown run. The extra point made it 7-0. The following Randolph series lasted only two plays before they fumbled the ball away. It was Fort, again, making the fumble recovery. From there, a 9-play Gowanda touchdown drive had them up 14-0. The final play in that drive was a 27-yard touchdown pass to Quentin Center. With just under a minute left in the quarter, Gowanda seemed to have things going their way.

The tide turned in the 2nd quarter. Randolph started picking up yardage in big chunks on the ground. They drove for three scores in the quarter. Meanwhile, Gowanda stalled. First it was a hike over the quarterback’s head that, eventually, forced Gowanda to punt on a 4th-and-24. Then it was a punt after a 3rd-and-5 dropped pass. Halftime arrived with the identical 21-14 Randolph lead seen at that point the week before, but, this time, those points had been scored in the opposite order.

Gowanda got a quick break as the 2nd half started. Randolph returned the kickoff to start the quarter and fumbled the ball back to Gowanda at the 44. The fumble recovery was credited to Connor Elliott. Another 3-and-out for Gowanda saw a punt that was returned back to the 44. It took Randolph 5 plays to score. Another Gowanda 3-play series ended on 4th-and 6 after a sack. The Gowanda punter bobbled the snap for the punt resulting in a kick that went only 15 yards and out of bounds. Another fast Randolph score was followed by a Gowanda drive that ended in an interception. As the 3rd quarter wound down, Gowanda got another break. Randolph took a shot at the end zone on a 2nd-and-20 play. The pass was intercepted at the goal line. In the entire game, Randolph only attempted four passes, none of which were caught by their own players. Gowanda scored in 5 plays. Once again the touchdown reception was made by Fort. With the extra point kick Gowanda was down 35-21 with 10:06 left in the game. Randolph and Gowanda both went 3-and-out before Randolph was able to score again. It was now 42-28 with 5:25 left in the game, but Gowanda was not yet done. Gowanda scored in three plays with a 47-yard touchdown reception by Winter Mentley-Peters. The following Gowanda kickoff cruised all the way to the 10, but went out of bounds giving Randolph a drive start at the 35. A 3-play touchdown drive set the score to 48-35 as the extra point kick was blocked. There was still 3:00 left in the game. A pick-six on Gowanda’s next play put Randolph up 56-35 after a 2-point conversion run. Gowanda’s next possession consisted of a dropped pass and another interception. With 2:22 still left, it just took three Randolph short runs an a kneel down to close out the game. No Gowanda statistics were available from the game.

Also on October 27, the CCAA Cross Country Championships were going on at Bemus Point. Gowanda was one of 17 schools represented. For the boys, Gowanda (104) was 4th as a team with Jamestown (42) 1st and Dunkirk (265) 12th in the small schools group. In a field of 139 runners, Gowanda’s Top 5 boys were Cashis Montour (19th, 17:57.05), Dustin Mohawk (23rd, 18:21.38), Chase Bolen (24th, 18:22.30), Joseph Fernandez (29th, 18:40.73) and Nathan Warrior (47th, 19:13.61).

The Gowanda girls team finished 7th with a score of 157. Allegany-Limestone (62) was 1st and Olean (225) was 9th in the small schools group. Individually, out of 90 runners, the following were Gowanda’s Top 5: Calie Hudson (8th, 21:05.67), Autumn Pupo 21st, 22:19.66), Marissa Beaver (56th, 25:29.23), Alhanna Gabel (66th, 26:19.64) and Jaylenn Elliott (68th, 26:54.44).