The Newburgh Free Academy football team entered Friday night’s game riding a three-game winning streak, and a stretch in which they had only allowed two points.

But even after their last win, they were stinging from the events that followed their win over Warwick. They got momentum back on their side with a 48-13 road victory over the Pine Bush Bushmen.

“I think we came out well and executed early, which is good,” Newburgh coach Bill Bianco said. “We’ve started off a little slow a couple of games, so I was happy we came out and executed in light of everything going on the past week.”

Just one week earlier, the Goldbacks posted a 40-0 win over the Warwick Wildcats, but that victory was marred by the non-fatal shooting that left three people injured in a Newburgh Free Academy Main parking lot. The Goldbacks had also celebrated the area’s two youth football programs, the Goldbacks Youth Football and the City of Newburgh Steelers.

“We played well the last couple of weeks,” Bianco said. “The whole thing that happened last week put a bad taste in a great night otherwise. All the youth football kids were there. The kids played well. Kids had a good time, and then to have it end like that was bad. But, relatively speaking, it’s good for these guys to clear their brains and have fun, hence why they’re playing.”

The Goldbacks jumped on the Bushmen early.
After forcing the Bushmen to punt, the Goldbacks took over on their own 38-yard line, and a 30-yard run by Tajir Walker set up Mason Hoover’s 30-yard touchdown pass to Deondre Johnson. The Goldbacks then turned a bad snap into a two-point conversion, when holder Joseph Alecia scooped up the loose ball and completed a pass to Nakei Johnson to give Newburgh an 8-0 lead.

It was one of two big special team plays made by Alicea, as after the Goldbacks forced a three-and-out, he returned a punt 53 yards for Newburgh’s second touchdown of the game.

“We scored on special teams, which was good,” Bianco said. “Our kicker started hitting some touchbacks so hopefully he’s in the groove with that. From a special teams perspective, we’re very happy with how they executed tonight. And then offensively and defensively, we’re starting to get healthy.”

And the defense continued to play well. The unit that hadn’t given up a point since the second week of the season recovered a fumble to give the offense a 17-yard field. Walker got himself on the board with a 2-yard touchdown run to give Newburgh a 22-0 lead after the first quarter.

Joe Ponesse, who shares time at quarterback with Hoover, scored on a 5-yard run in the second quarter to give the Goldbacks a 29-0 lead. Hoover completed a second touchdown pass to Johnson to give the Goldbacks a 35-0 lead.

“They’ve been playing well,” Bianco said. “They’ve been working well together. They work hard every day in practice. And to be honest, (Dishawn Hall) our third guy is doing pretty well, too. Are they perfect? No, but as far as working hard in practice and doing what they’ve got to do every day and executing the offense, they’re trying to do what they’re supposed to do.”

Walker ran for a touchdown in the third quarter, and Darryl Jackson ran back a fumble for a touchdown.

Mike DeSena ran for a late first-half touchdown for the Bushmen and Danny DeGroot threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Connor Stacklum.

The Goldbacks have now won half of their Class AA games, heading into Saturday morning’s matchup with the Kingston Tigers. The game was originally scheduled for Friday night but was moved to Saturday after the September 30 shooting.

“I don’t know if we’re getting better because we’re actually getting better or we’re just getting healthier, which is making us better,” Bianco said. “Either way, we’re seeing big spikes in our execution so hopefully we can just keep doing it. Every week’s a new week every week’s a new challenge.”