The Pine Bush Bushmen gave the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks everything they could handle for 48 minutes.

They just found themselves one point short.

Newburgh Free Academy kicker Chase Steiner kicked a game-winning 28-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in the game on Saturday, handing the Bushmen a 27-26 loss at Thomas Lonergan Field at Pine Bush High School.

“The effort’s there,” said Pine Bush assistant coach Kyle Schneider, filling in for coach Rich Ormsby, who had to leave immediately after the game for personal reasons. “We just didn’t execute the little details that matter sometimes, and we just didn’t execute when we really needed to.”

The Bushmen led by as many as four points when a 54-yard touchdown run by Ruben Simpson gave the Bushmen a 7-3 lead, but the Goldbacks took their second three-point lead again on an eight-yard touchdown run by Montgomery with 20 seconds left in the second quarter.

The Goldbacks widened their lead to 10 points on a 37-yard catch-and-run from Jaiseon Barnwell to Jayden Hines with 1:01 left in the third quarter.

The Bushmen closed the lead to three points again when Jacob Brown scored on a 72-yard touchdown run to pull the Bushmen back to within three points with 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

The Bushmen took a 20-17 lead when Simpson scored on a 6-yard touchdown run, but the Goldbacks blocked the extra point.

The Bushmen nearly had Barnwell in the backfield on the next drive, but he escaped and found Jahsir Davis wide open for a 32-yard completion. Five plays later Bruce Montgomery gave the Goldbacks a 24-20 lead with a four-yard touchdown run.

The Bushmen struck back immediately when Jamil Sneed returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. Sneed had returned a previous kick for a touchdown, but it was called back by a penalty.

“He’s awesome, and he’s very fast,” Schneider said. “With the ball in his hands, if he has a straight line, he’s going to get there.”

He also completed a 48-yard pass to Jayden Hines on the game-winning drive to set up Steiner’s field goal.
Then a bad snap on the extra point, limited Pine Bush’s lead to 26-24, meaning the Goldbacks didn’t need a touchdown.

“The kicking situation hasn’t been where we want it to be,” Schneider said. “But it’s the attention to detail of you’ve got to know when it’s the biggest points of the game. We missed two of them at the end that obviously lost the game.”

Then, Barnwell’s 48-yard pass to Hines put the Goldbacks on the Pine Bush 30-yard line. After a short pass to Davis, a 16-yard screen pass to Bruce Montgomery set the Goldbacks up at the Pine Bush 11.

When three shots at the end zone failed to produce a touchdown, the Goldbacks sent Steiner to the field. He had already kicked a 24-yard field goal in the first quarter that gave the Goldbacks a 3-0 lead.

The Bushmen (2-4, 1-2 Class AA) have some fighting to do if they want to be one of the four Class AA teams in the playoffs. They currently sit in fourth place with games remaining against the Middletown Middies and the Kingston Tigers, who posted a win over Monroe-Woodbury last week.

“We’re a good football team,” Schneider said. “We still need to believe in ourselves. There’s still a chance to make the playoffs, so we might see them again. We might see Monroe again. We’ve got to keep getting better and start turning these close games into victories.”