It was going to be the last play of the game.

Either the Arlington Admirals were going to score a game-winning two-point conversion or the Newburgh

Free Academy Goldbacks were going to make a game-winning stop.

It was Newburgh.

Semaj Branch stuffed Arlington’s Aidan Chaffee outside the goal-line giving the Goldbacks a 35-34 overtime victory on Saturday night at Middletown’s Faller Field to advance to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA football semifinals.

Even when the play was over, Johnson couldn’t believe the Goldbacks made that stop.

“I just had to make sure we stopped him for sure,” Johnson said. “I had to make sure we had a good tackle before we can celebrate.”

And celebrate they did.

As soon as the play was blown dead, the Goldbacks were finally able to let loose in celebration that almost seemed dashed when the Goldbacks’ Mason Hoover was intercepted in the end zone late in the fourth quarter.

“We survived a lot,” Johnson said. “This game was big for us. I see in Newburgh history, we’re one of the top teams to make it this far, and we’re very appreciative of that.”

The game was tied at the end of regulation, even though the Goldbacks looked to be on their way to a game-winning drive.

The Goldbacks took possession on their own 8-yard line with 7:38 to go, and a steady diet of Eric Duncan running the ball got the Goldbacks to Arlington 32-yard line, and then two completions by Hoover got Newburgh to the 16-yard line.

“Duncan wears you down,” Newburgh coach Bill Bianco said. “He’s physical. As time goes on and gets more and more carries, he starts leaning on you. And then our offensive line gets cooking, too. So, the two of them together is usually a good mix.”

A 3-yard run by Duncan and a 5-yard run by Elijah Bevier got the Goldbacks to the Admirals’ 8-yard line.
But then an illegal substitution penalty led to an ill-advised play call, as Hoover’s pass – intended for Johnson – came up short and was intercepted by Arlington’s Ian Griffin in the end zone.

Apparently, Johnson lobbied for the call.

“I shouldn’t listen to (Johnson),” Bianco said. “I said to (Johnson) in the end, ‘why don’t I stick to coaching and you stick to playing’ because we’re both better at that.”

The defense bailed out Bianco and Johnson, recovering an Arlington fumble on their own 45 with 11.5 seconds to go in regulation and the game went to overtime with the score tied, 28-28.

“My heart dropped (on the interception),” Duncan said. “But we stayed together as a team, and we did what we had to do.”

What the Goldbacks had to do was give the ball to Duncan in overtime.

Starting on the Admirals’ 20, Duncan had runs of 5 and 12 yards to set up his 3-yard touchdown run, and Luis Tejada’s extra point gave the Goldbacks a 35-28 lead.

“We just had to punch the ball in their mouths,” Duncan said. “We knew they didn’t want it more than we did. We just did our thing and overcame.”

It took the Admirals’ four plays to go their 20 yards for a touchdown, but the Admirals elected to go for the two-point conversion instead of kicking the extra point and send the game to another overtime.

And the result sent the Goldbacks back to Middletown on Saturday night where the Goldbacks will face Section 1 champion Carmel, who defeated the Section 2 champion, Christian Brothers Academy of Albany, 51-7, on Saturday.

“When you get to this stage of the game - and we’ve been here before – every game and every team is going to be tough,” Bianco said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board and try to come up with a plan to stop them and take it from there.”