The Newburgh Free Academy wrestling team doesn’t beat the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders a lot.

Newburgh coach Chris Leggett estimates the Goldbacks may have done it twice in the last 18 years, but the Goldbacks secured a win over the Crusaders on Friday night with a 44-24 victory in a Division I-A match at Newburgh Free Academy.

“We knew it was going to be a close match,” Leggett said. “Monroe had a couple of kids out of the lineup so we were pretty hopeful that we would come out on top, and we got some great performances.”

One of those great performances came at 145 pounds. With the Goldbacks leading 6-3 after the first two matches, junior Alex Silva gave up two first-period points to Monroe-Woodbury’s Adrian Estrada.

Silva tied the match with a reversal in the second period, before opening up a 9-3 lead and securing a pinfall victory in 5:38.

Then at 190 pounds William Coughlin pinned Monroe-Woodbury’s Luis Rodas-Paz to pull the Goldbacks to within three points of the Crusaders.

That set up junior Christopher Leggett’s pinfall victory over Ashton Capen at 215 pounds to give the Goldbacks their second lead of the day.

They took their first lead of the day when Matthew Mercado opened the tournament with a pinfall victory over Elijah Brown at 131 pins. Then Silva’s victory staked the Goldbacks to a 12-3 lead.

“Mercado was against a decent wrestler,” coach Leggett said. “He went out and set the tone for us by getting a big lead on Elijah Brown and then putting it to bed for us.”

The Crusaders tied the match at 24 with a win at 285 pounds, before the weight classes reset to the lower weights, where two of the Goldbacks’ strongest wrestlers awaited.

Freshman William Soto, who is ranked first in Section 9 and first in the state by New York Wrestling News faced recent Pan American Champion Gail Sullivan at 101 pounds, won by technical fall, giving the Goldbacks a lead for good.

“We knew he was going to have a tough match with Gigi there,” coach Leggett said. “She’s a Pan Am champ for her age and it’s not an easy match wrestling a girl like that. But he took care of business.”

Weston Kubin accepted a forfeit at 108 pounds, which allowed the Goldbacks to bump defending state champion Cooper Merli to 116, where he pinned Caleb Brown.

“We knew they were going to forfeit so we could bump our two guys up and knew they would be OK in those matchups with Cooper going up to 116 and (Jordan) Busby going up to 124,” coach Leggett said.

With the Goldbacks’ win secured, Busby took care of business by beating Devin Charles, 10-4, to end the night.

“This helps keep our third seed for the Section 9 Duals,” coach Leggett said. “We’re in a good position. We still have to wrestle Middletown, and they’re very good this year. If we’re fortunate to beat them and wrestle Minisink, who knows what happens this year.”

Newburgh 44, Monroe-Woodbury 24
131: Matthew Mercado (NFA) pinned Elijah Brown, 2:52
138: Rhett Alvarado (MW) Ivan Duran, 8-2
145: Alexander Silva (NFA) pinned Adrian Estrada, 5:38
152: Liam Hayes (MW) pinned Liam Ehlers, :21
160: Isaiah Grant (MW) pinned Mateo Morell, 3:31
170: Jonathan Subocz (MW) pinned Trey Walker, 3:53
190: William Coughlin (NFA) pinned Luis Rodas-Paz, 1:59
215: Christopher Leggett (NFA) pinned Ashton Capen, 2:52.
285: Jose Hernandez Rosa (MW) def. Jahleel Wilson, 3-0.
101: William Soto (NFA) tech. fall Gail Sullivan, 17-2, 3:30
108: Weston Kubin (NFA) won by forfeit.
116: Cooper Merli (NFA) pinned Caleb Brown, 1:37.
124: Jordan Busby (NFA) def. Devin Charles, 10-4