Gowanda Small Town Times

[photo] Gowanda’s Addison Kota (#12) goes up to tip the ball over a defender during the Quarter-Final home game against Tapestry on October 26.

The wind down week of the Fall Sports season has been very good to Gowanda teams. On Monday, October 23, the Gowanda Cross Country teams closed out their regular season with a non-league meet at Silver Creek. Also represented were Falconer/Cassadaga, Dunkirk and Olean. The Gowanda boys finished in 1st Place with a score of 17 with Silver Creek-Forestville(69) and Falconer/Cassadaga (74) coming in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Other teams were incomplete. Leading the Gowanda boys was Jason Twoguns who finished in 3rd Place. Also finishing in the Top 10 and scoring for Gowanda were Cashis Montour, Dustin Mohawk, Joseph Fernandes and Nathan Warrior. Gowanda was the only team present with a full team of at least 5 girls and won the girls race by default with a score of 15. Led by Seniors Calie Hudson and Autumn Pupo, the Gowanda girls also had strong efforts from Jaylynn Elliott, Marissa Beaver, and Alhanna Gabel who also scored for the team.

On October 26 the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team hosted Tapestry for a Section 6 Class C2 Quarter-Final game. Gowanda got off to a slow start in Game 1. After taking the first two points, Gowanda slid into an early 5-4 deficient. That would prove to be Tapestry’s only lead of the night. Gowanda tied things at 5 and went on a 15-point rampage with Aubrie Heron serving. The run stalled at 20-5. Gowanda went on to close out a win at 25-8. Game 2 was similar. Gowanda slowly built a 9-5 lead. Jillian Gernatt added 8 service points taking the Gowanda advantage to 17-5. Gowanda grew the gap to 15 points with a 25-10 win. Game 3 was much the same story and Gowanda was able to easily take a 3-0 match win with a 25-11 Game 3 win.

The less competitive that usual game left Gowanda with less impressive stat than usual as follows:

Corrina John 8 kills
Elizabeth Green 8 kills, 1 dig
Holland Browning 5 kills, 3 aces, 12 digs
Addison Kota 4 kills, 4 aces, 4 digs
Aubrie Heron 3 kills, 3 aces, 2 digs, 2 blocks
Lauren Kelly 3 kills
Jillian Gernatt 1 kill, 2 aces, 1 dig
Ella Luther 1 assist, 5 digs
Tessa Kohn 3 digs

Gowanda, as the #4 seed, got a big break as #8 Cassadaga Valley knocked of #1 seeded MST by a 3-2 score, also on the 26th. That gave Gowanda one more playoff home game for the Semi-Finals. During the regular season Cassadaga Valley lost both games they played against Pine Valley, a team Gowanda swept. That should make Gowanda a huge favorite to make it to the finals.

Football 4-4, 1-4

Friday, October 20

Randolph at Gowanda/Pine Valley
- Senior Night -
Gowanda 26, Randolph 42

Girls Volleyball 14-4, 12-2

Tuesday, October 17

Gowanda at Cattaraugus-Little Valley
Gowanda 3, Catt.-L.V. 1
25-22/26-24/22-25/25-18

Thursday, October 19

Salamanca at Gowanda
Gowanda 3, Salamanca 0
25-20/25-18/25-10

Cross Country

Tuesday, October 17

Gowanda at Maple Grove
boys
1st Maple Grove 26
2nd Gowanda 38
3rd Franklinville/Ellicottville 88
4th Fredonia 95

girls
1st MapleGorove 25
2nd Fredonia 50
3rd Gowanda 69
Franklinville/Ellicottville incomplete

Friday, October 20

Lake Shore Stampede at Lakeview,NY
- 25 schools represented -
boys - 106 runners -
Gowanda Top 5 finishers
Jayson Twoguns (6th, 17:57.61)
Chase Bolen (9th, 18:17.22)
Dustin Mohawk (10th, 18:18.19)
Cashis Montour (11th, 18:19.35)
Joseph Fernandes (13th, 18:38.356)

girls - 63 runners -
Gowanda Top 5 finishers
Calie Hudson (7th, 20:52.66)
Autumn Pupo (13th, 21:38.89)
Jaylynn Elliott (45th, 26:220.37)
Alhanna Gabel (47th, 26:30.84)
Willow Mentley-Peters (50th, 26:38.30)

Boys Soccer 1-16, 1-9

Tuesday, October 17

Silver Creek at Pine Valley/Gowanda
- Class C pre-quarter finals -
Pine Valley 0, Silver Creek 3

Girls Soccer 3-12-2, 3-7-2

Wednesday, October 18

Pine Valley/Gowanda at Silver Creek
- Class B2 pre-quarter finals -
Pine Valley 0, Silver Creek 3

[photo] Senior Class members of the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team on Senior Night. In a mid-court photo op, pictured are (from left to right) Aubrie Heron, Madilyn Pawlak, Ella Luther and Chloe Luther.

On October 19 the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team closed out their regular season schedule at home hosting Salamanca. As is always the case for a team’s last regular home appearance the team celebrated Senior Night introducing the Senior Class members of the team and their parents before the game. Those Seniors were Aubrie Heron, Ella Luther, Madilyn Pawlak and Chloe Luther. Ten girls on Salamanca’s 14-player roster were also Seniors and they were recognized as a group. Although they had managed only a single win in the division during the season, Salamanca was not about to go down without a fight.

Gowanda grabbed the first point and held a lead through the first half of Game 1 that peaked at 6-3. It was a tight battle throughout with a tie score coming at 2, and again at 11. Salamanca took over the lead for most of the second half of the game. Gowanda stayed within three points as the game fell back into a tie at 14, 16 and 20. That 20-20 score came on an Ella Luther ace. Gowanda nailed down the next five points to take a 25-20 win.

Game 2 was even tighter in the early going with both teams having leads that did not exceed two points. The game saw ties at 1 through 4 and again at 8 and 10 through 14. From 14-all Gowanda moved into an 18-14 advantage then slid back into a tie at 18. After securing the next point, Holland Browning was up to serve. Gowanda went on a 6-point blitz that included 3 Browning aces. Gowanda’s 25-18 win had them fully in control up 2-0 in the match.

Game 3 was briefly close with ties at 1 through 3. Salamanca never had a lead in the game and Gowanda took off from the 3-3 tie while Salamanca faded. Gowanda steadily grew their lead. Madilyn Pawlak’s first ace of her Varsity career had Gowanda up 10-5. That advantage grew to 17-8 with Holland Browning coming up to serve again. Three more Browning aces fueled a Gowanda 5-point spurt to 22-8. Salamanca interrupted that surge scoring twice to bring their total to 10 before Gowanda locked down their final three points. The 25-10 win gave Gowanda a 3-0 match win.

The team is now waiting for news of their playoff seeding and to find out who the will be playing next. For now, the stats from this game are below.

Aubrie Heron 11 kills, 5 digs, 2 blocks
Elizabeth Green 7 kills, 2 digs
Holland Browning 4 kills, 7 aces, 13 digs
Addison Kota 3 kills, 3 assists, 3 aces, 8 digs, 1 block
Lauren Kelly 1 kill
Jillian Gernatt 22 assists, 3 digs
Madilyn Pawlak 1 ace, 4 digs (1st ace)
Ella Luther 3 aces, 14 digs
Corrina John 1 dig, 1 block
Tessa Kohn 1 dig

As the regular season for Fall Sports is winding down, October 17 was a very busy day. The Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball had a extremely important game against Cattaraugus-Little Valley. With C-LV just a half game behind Gowanda in CCAA East, Gowanda’s hold on 2nd Place in the division was on the line. Additionally, cross country was at Maple Grove and the soccer playoffs were getting started.

At Cattaraugus, Gowanda took the early lead in Game 1. It was a game that remained close throughout. The game ebbed and flowed with Gowanda building leads only to have Cattaraugus close the gap. Gowanda’s largest lead of the came at a score of 18-13 before Cattaraugus rallied back to within a point at 21-20. From there Gowanda cruised to a 25-22 win. Game 2 was much the same with Gowanda building leads only to fall back again. The hard fought battle saw a tie score at 2, 9, 17 and 24 before Gowanda secured a 26-24 win. Cattaraugus came out strong in Game 3 moving into a quick 3-1 advantage. The gap maxed out at 6 points at 10-4. Gowanda slowly clawed their way back, but could not do better than to close the margin to a single point at 16-15. Cattaraugus pushed back into a 20-15 lead that they rode to a 25-21 win. With Gowanda up 2-1 in the match, game 4 was very important to both teams. While the game remained close in the early going, another early 3-1 Cattaraugus lead would see the game tied at 7 as Gowanda pulled ahead. A 5-point run with Addison Kota serving would eventually give Gowanda an 18-12 lead. From there they were able to hold on for a 25-18 victory and a 3-1 match win.

As a side note, Sydney Smith got her first two varsity career aces in the game. Full game stats are below.
Aubrie Heron 13 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 2 blocks
Corrina John 8 kills, 2 digs, 11 blocks
Addison Kota 8 kills, 1 assist, 2 aces, 20 digs
Elizabeth Green 7 kills
Holland Browning 5 kills, 2 aces, 28 digs, 1 block
Jillian Gernatt 37 assists, 1 ace, 6 digs
Sydney Smith 2 aces, 5 digs
Tessa Kohn 1 ace, 3 digs
Ella Luther 34 digs

The boys and girls cross country were also in action in a meet at Maple Grove along with Franklinville/Ellicottville and Fredonia. The Gowanda boys took 2nd Place as a team with 38 points behind Maple Grove (26 points) with Franklinville/Ellicottville (88 points) and Fredonia (95 points) 3rd and 4th, respectively. Gowanda was led with strong efforts by Jayson Twoguns (4th), Chase Bolen (5th), Cashis Montour (7th) and Nathan Warrior (10th).

For the girls, it was Maple Grove (25 points) in 1st place followed by Fredonia (50 points) and Gowanda (69 points). Franklinville/Ellicottville was incomplete. Gowanda’s Autumn Pupo of took 1st Place with a time of 21:17.

Over in Pine Valley, the Pine Valley /Gowanda boys soccer team hosted Silver Creek in a Class C pre-quarter final game. In a 3-0 loss, the boys season came to an end.

There were a couple of competitions that took place on Saturday, October 14. The football team was at Panama to take on CSP that afternoon and the Gowanda cross country team was at the Alden Bulldogs Stampede. Additionally, the Gowanda Volunteer Fire Department ran their fishing derby all weekend.

At Panama, the Gowanda Varsity football team had a tough afternoon with CSP. The Gowanda run game was nearly shutdown. Six Gowanda players gained a total of 9 yards on 15 carries. Leading rusher for the team was Cameron Slade with 10 carries for 4 yards. Gowanda did have limited success through the air. Gowanda quarterback, Carter Capozzi, comleted 13 of 27 passes for 209 yard and a air of touchdowns. He was also intercepted 3 times. The bulk of the Gowanda catches were by Jon Sheldon (7 receptions, 69 yards, 1 TD) and Quentin Centner (4 receptions, 132 yards, 1 TD). With single 4-yard receptions each were Brayden Smith and Owen Pfaffenbach.

The lack of Gowanda offense found Gowanda in a 43-6 deficit at halftime with CSP points evenly split between the 1st and 2nd quarter. Adding 7 and 6 points, respectively, in the 3rd and 4th quarters, CSP closed out the game with 56 points. Gowanda had single touchdowns in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. After both scores, 2-point conversion passes failed.

Also on Saturday, the Gowanda boys and girls cross country teams were at the Alden Stampede along with 66 other schools groups, by school size into several divisions. Gowanda competed in the Blue (small schools) division.

For the boys, there were 170 runners representing 22 schools in the Blue division. Gowanda came in 3rd as a team with a score of 162. Alden (55) took 1st Place. City Honors’ Henry Peterson came in 1st with a time of 16:19.21. The top five Gowanda boys were Jayson Twoguns (18th, 17:53.73), Chase Bolen (23rd, 18:00.12), Joseph Fernandez (33rd, 18:32.74), Cashis Montour (42nd, 18:46.27) and Maddox Hudson (74th, 19:43.31).

For the girls, Blue division had 143 runners from 18 schools. With 1st Place as a team, CSP had a score of 63. Gowanda was 11th with 270. Emma Lewis (Southwestern) took 1st Place with a time of 19:15.69. The Gowanda girls did have one Top 10 overall finisher in Calie Hudson (9th, 20:33.32). Completing the Top 5 Gowanda finishes were Autumn Pupo (26th, 21:36.40), Alhanna Gabel (106th, 25:44.04), Willow Memtley-Peters (107th, 25:50.44) and Jaylynn Elliott (112th, 26:05.31).

In non-school sports news, the Gowanda Volunteer Fire Department held their Fishing Derby on Saturday and Sunday. There were reported to be 147 registered participants for the event. The GVFD also announced that 150 Tagged Trout were sponsored totaling $8,155 worth of either cash, gift certificate or merchandise. Ten tagged fish were caught. Winners in the Adult Division were Ben Blackhall (1st, 8.16 lbs., $500), Derek Miller (2nd, 7.42 lbs., $300) and Brian Homan (3rd, 7.40 lbs., $200). In the Youth Division the following winners were announced: Derrick Chmielewski (1st, 8.28 lbs., $500), Derrick Chmielewski (2nd, 7.28 lbs., $300) and Dino Delmonte (3rd, 6.16 lbs., $200). Other prizes were also announced including First fish weighed in (Brian Homan, $50), Last fish weighed in (Hayleigh Miller, $50) and Furthest traveled (Anthony from Geismarla, LA, 1,276 miles, $100). Winners of three random drawings for $100 each were Giovanni Gallo, Aidan Carroll and Frederick Ring. Mark H. was a 50/50 winner.