Everything seemed to be going against the Newburgh Free Academy football team.

The top-seeded Goldbacks already annoyed that the “neutral site” for the Section 9 Class AA championship was Monroe-Woodbury High School, the home of their opponent, and having to use the visitors’ sidelines and locker room, also had to watch as starting quarterback Dylan Iorlano suffered a shoulder injury during the first series.

However, Eric Duncan carried the load for the Goldbacks, as they outlasted both the second-seeded Crusaders, an hour-long lightning delay and cold, windy and rainy conditions to outlast the Crusaders, 15-7, on Saturday afternoon.

Duncan was also named the Offensive Player of the Game.

“This feels good; I’m not going to lie,” Duncan said. “I’m excited and I’m celebrating with my teammates right now. We’re going to go back into the locker room and jump up and down. This is crazy.”

Iorlano had one run in the game, a 6-yard keeper on the Goldbacks’ second offensive play of the game. The rest of the drive was all Duncan as he singlehandedly carried the Goldbacks to the Crusaders’ 4-yard line where it stalled.

However, Luis Tejada put the Goldbacks on the board with a 21-yard field goal.

“When I saw Dylan go down it broke my heart because he led us here,” Duncan said. “He’s QB No. 1 through modified, JV and everything, but that didn’t change how we played. We stayed true to ourselves.”

After Ryan Conn recovered a Crusaders’ fumble, Duncan carried the Goldbacks to another drive that reached the Monroe-Woodbury 8 before penalties pushed them back to the 20. Duncan also had a 13-yard touchdown called back by a holding penalty.

Iorlano tried to get a third-down pass to Deondre Johnson but couldn’t complete it and Torres kicked his second field goal of the game, this one from 37 yards to give Newburgh a 6-0 lead.

The Crusaders broke through in the second quarter to take their only lead of the day when long runs by the Crusaders’ Jayden Coulanges and quarterback Michael Zrelak set up Zrelak’s 3-yard touchdown run, and Jeremy Rojas’ kick gave the Crusaders a 7-6 lead with 10:04 left in the second quarter.

At this point, Iorlano left the game due to his injury, making way for freshman Mason Hoover, suddenly playing in the biggest game of his life.

“I told him there was no pressure and it’s all a mindset,” Duncan said. “It’s all about the mind. He did what he had to do, and he just got it done.”

With a lot of help from his backfield as Duncan carried the load on a third drive that got to the Monroe-Woodbury 14 before Torres gave the Goldbacks the lead for good with a 30-yard field goal, putting them up 9-7 at the half.

The teams came out for the third quarter, the Crusaders were forced to punt after holding the ball for 4 minutes before the officials called everyone off the field for what turned into an hour-long lightning delay.

“At that point, we knew we had the ball,” Newburgh coach Bill Bianco said. “We knew it was going to be a cold, and different environment. So, we just knew we had to play to the best of our ability to get this thing going, and we knew we had a chance to win.”

Hoover made the biggest pass of his season when he connected with Duncan on an 11-yard fourth down pass in the fourth quarter. Duncan’s 20-yard run set up a 1-yard run by Sam Okeyo to give the Goldbacks some breathing room.

“That gave us more momentum to finish this game and shut it down,” Duncan said.

The Crusaders had a last gasp when the Goldbacks turned the ball over on downs with three seconds to go.

An offensive penalty as time expired erased a Monroe-Woodbury touchdown on what appeared to be a second forward pass on the play. However, Newburgh stopped the next attempt for a desperation play and the Section 9 Class AA championship came back to Newburgh.

“I couldn’t be more proud of a team I’ve ever coached dealing with this,” Bianco said. “Today, there was so much against us.”

The Goldbacks will move onto the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA quarterfinals on Saturday at Faller Field against, Section 1 runner up, Arlington.

“We’ll take it brick by brick,” Duncan said. “We’ll stack it up one brick at a time. We’re not worried about anything but next week.”