It took a few possessions to get started, but the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks got their feet under them.

The defense made only one mistake and the Goldbacks never trailed in a 42-6 win over the Warwick Wildcats on Thursday at C. Morgan Ashley Field at Warwick Valley High School.

“We just started in section play and everybody’s amped up,” Newburgh quarterback Jaiseon Barnwell. “When you get too high, you’ve got to bring it back down. We’ve got to get guys to slow down.”

The Goldbacks went three-and-out on and fumbled the ball on their first drive on the second but capitalized on an interception by Michael Chambliss.
Two players later, Nyeir Johnson got the Goldbacks on the board with a 19-yard touchdown run, and the extra point by Griffen Robinson gave the Goldbacks a 7-0 lead.

“It was good, but sloppy,” Newburgh coach Bill Bianco said. “We fumbled a little more than I liked, but I thought we threw the ball decent. I thought we ran the ball decently. I thought we blocked pretty well up front, and then when turned them over a decent amount of times.”

The Goldbacks took a 14-0 lead in the second quarter with a 43-yard pass from Barnwell to Jeron Underwood.

The Goldbacks’ mistakes bit them in the second quarter when an option pass was intercepted by Warwick’s Matt Finnerty. Three plays later, Warwick quarterback Erik Missisauskas threw a 76-yard touchdown pass to cut the Goldbacks’ lead to 14-6.

“Our run defense was good at times, and then our pass defense was good a times,” Bianco said. “Then we just blew one coverage. The kid thought we were in one thing and that’s why no one was deep.”

However, that was the only offense the Wildcats generated, and the Goldbacks’ answered immediately with a 2-yard touchdown run by Justin Lassic to give the Goldbacks a 21-6 lead.

Lassic ran for a second touchdown on the first drive of the third quarter, giving Newburgh a 28-6 lead.

“We’ve got four backs that can really go and more in the stable,” Barnwell said.

“We’ve got Justin, Nyeir, (Austin) Lilla and Denvyr (Herring), who’s just gotten in the system and he’s picking it up already. When you have that many guys that can go, it’s really hard for a defense to know who to stop.”

Barnwell threw his second touchdown pass of the game late in the third quarter, connecting with Tavio Johnson from 26 yards out.

“I feel like there’s things we can do better,” Barnwell said. “There were too many incompletions for my liking. We think we should have zero incompletions every game because we’re in our third year on varsity. We know the tempo and timing we need for everything.”

Zaire Jacklyn came off the bench to cap the scoring in the fourth quarter with a 48-yard touchdown run.

“It was great seeing the young guys get to shine in a game like this,” Barnwell said. “That’s the goal. Not to shade anybody, but when you come into a game like this, the goal is obviously to get everybody to play.”

The Goldbacks will return home Thursday night to host the Washingtonville Wizards, who opened the season with wins over Our Lady of Lourdes and Monroe-Woodbury.

“We played a tough scrimmage and a tough Week 0,” Bianco said. “We think if we play our game, we’re a good team. We just need everybody available and everybody playing together, and we’ve just got to keep building on it.”