Deondre Johnson went down the line hugging all of his Newburgh Free Academy coaches and players, stopping for a moment at the end of the line, where he encountered the Goldbacks’ sophomore quarterback Mason Hoover, still upset over the Goldbacks’ 42-8 loss to Section 6 champion Bennett in Sunday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA championship game at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse.

“I was telling him this is a learning experience,” Johnson said. “This happens to the best. I told him to keep working his behind off and he’ll be here next year.”

While Hoover will have two more seasons to attempt to return to the Dome, Sunday’s loss spelled an end to Johnson’s career with the Goldbacks. At this time next year, he expects to be playing Division I football for Rutgers University.

It wasn’t the way he wanted it to end, with the football family disbanding after a difficult loss.

“They meant a lot to me,” Johnson said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be here. They were just going in practice and making me better and I was making them better.”

However, on Sunday, the Bennet Tigers were better, and punched the Goldbacks square in the mouth on the first play from scrimmage, as Jayden Lewis scored on a 77-yard touchdown run, and the ensuing two-point conversion gave the Tigers an 8-0 lead.

“The kid just bounced the ball out, and it was quick,” Newburgh coach Bill Bianco said.

The Goldbacks slowed the Tigers down for the rest of the first quarter, but couldn’t get any offense going. They punted once, Hoover was intercepted by Lewis deep in Bennett territory.

The Goldbacks had the ball at the start of the second quarter, but a low snap resulted in a fumble and Bennet’s Ja’Meer Thomas ran it back 80 yards for a 16-0 lead.

Tigers quarterback Antonio Davis, III, hit Thomas and Lewis on identical 25-yard touchdown passes to give the Tigers a 30-0 lead with 3:32 left in the second quarter.

“I don’t want to take anything away from them, but we could have played better,” Bianco said. “But we didn’t lose to a bad team. We lost to a very good team.”

The Goldbacks finally got on the board with 38 seconds left in the third quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run by Tajir Walker. He also ran in a two-point conversion to cut Bennett’s lead to 30-8.

The Tigers added a third-quarter touchdown by Lewis and a fourth-quarter score by Shamier Land.

The loss doesn’t negate the season the Goldbacks had. After losing their first two non-league games, they won 10 straight to win the Section 9 Class AA title, and then upended the defending state champion Carmel Rams and then Section 2 champion Christian Brothers Academy.

“Obviously, if you’re in the game, you have a chance to win the state championship, so any time you’re here, you had a great season. We’ll just keep cracking and hopefully we get one of these things.”

The day may have ended in disappointment, but it started in celebration early this morning when the Goldbacks were escorted out of town by a police and fire department escort.

“This season meant a lot to me,” Johnson said. “I grew as a person. I grew as a teammate, and I grew as a student in the classroom.”