The Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks had just taken a three-point lead.

The only problem was 1:43 left in the game, which was more than enough time for the Middletown Middie Bears, who drove 64 yards in just over a minute for what turned out to be the game-winning drive, handing Newburgh a 33-22 loss on Friday in a Class AA football game at Faller Field in Middletown.

Even after the Middies took a 26-22 lead, the Goldbacks still had 30 seconds to try to answer. However, Jaiseon Barnwell’s pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage and intercepted by Middletown’s Andrew Smith, who ran it back for a touchdown to put the final nail in the game.

“We were up with a minute or whatever to play and we just couldn’t stop them,” Newburgh coach Bill Bianco said. “They threw the ball all over us. So, we’ll go back to the drawing board and try to work on some things to mitigate that moving forward and try to learn from this game.”

One thing the Goldbacks learned was they can depend on Denvyr Herring when the situation calls for it. Justin Lassic left the game in the first half with an injury, leaving Herring to help carry the load on the Goldbacks’ fourth-quarter touchdown drive. Herring gave the Goldbacks their final lead of the game when he scored on a three-yard touchdown run with 1:43 left in the game, giving the Goldbacks a 1-point lead.

“Denvyr played pretty well,” Bianco said. “Considering he was the backup, but he came in and did a pretty good job. I thought he ran the ball hard. I thought he caught the ball. He did everything that we would want a guy to do. He played great, to be honest.”

Jaiseon Barnwell ran in the two-point conversion to give the Goldbacks a 22-19 lead.

“When everybody’s going, I think our offense can be very good,” Bianco said. “We just came a little bit short.”

That left it up to Joseph Royal and the Middletown passing attack, which shredded the Newburgh defense. He completed two passes to Zayden Phillpotts for 20 yards and then connected with Ryheem Tinsley junior for two more completions for 24 yards. That set up Royal’s 5-yard touchdown run to give the Middies the lead.

The Middies scored first, as Royal hit Tinsley on a slant pattern that went for a 68-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

The Goldbacks answered with a three-yard touchdown run by Nyeir Johnson with 5:05 left in the first quarter and took the lead on Johnson’s 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

The Middies cut the Goldbacks’ lead to 14-13 on a 91-yard pass from Royal to Tinsley with 4:10 left in the second quarter and took a 19-14 lead on Royal’s third touchdown pass to Tinsley.

“He went off, so credit to that kid,” Bianco said. “He played the whole game, and he was making plays all over the place. He definitely hurt us, so we’ve got to try to have some answers when they move people around.”

The loss pushes the Goldbacks into a second-place tie with the Valley Central Vikings for second place in Class AA. Both teams have identical records after the Vikings’ 12-7 win over the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders on Friday.

“Hopefully we can do what we can do to fix the mistakes,” Bianco said. “And maybe we can see them again down the road.”